I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

||l':il?. ..:V....^.... lojjmijM |cr .,..:- .:. 

II UNITED STATES OP^TjIEIJICA | 



LECTURES 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



,.^./ 



At jy^URFACE, A. 1?., LL. B., 

SUPKRINTENDENT SCHOOLS, WEST LIBERTY, OHIO ; I,ATK 
SUPERINTENDENT, OERMANTOWN, OHIO. 



!N.:^!4.a^'M 



URBANA, O: 

SAXTON A BRAND, STEA>[ PRINTERS. 
1877. 



3 

Si 



o\\ 



i^:^^. 



Entered aeeording to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by 

A. J. SURFACE, A. B., LL. B., 
In the oHice of the Libarian of Congress, at Washington. 



5 ui 



[ - 



TO 

MY WIFE, 
MRS. EMMA J. SURFACE, 

A8 A TESTIMONIAL 

OF MY 

RESPECT AND ESTEEM, AND ABOVE ALL 
AS A SMALL TOKEN OF MY 

LOVE, 

these pages are dedicated by 

The Author. 



PREFACE 



The author must say what almost all authors say, 
that is, that the book is not, by any means, what he 
wishes it to be. Yet he sends it forth to the profes- 
sion and to those who contemplate entering the pro- 
fession, hoping it will indulge him in the many errors 
with which it is encumbered; still, with all its imper- 
fections, he presumes to hope that it may help some of 
his fellow teachers to overcome some of the many diffi- 
culties which beset them on every hand. 

The book consists partly of lectures delivered at the 
different Teacher's Institutes in which he has labored; 
and partly of the instructions in government and school 
management given from time to time to his teachers, 
while he was superintending a school of eight depart- 
ments, in addition to teaching half a dozen of the 
higher classes of the High School. 

The lecturas consist of little more than the notes 
which were jjrepared to lecture from. Many thoughts 
delivered during the different courses from which these 
lectures are compiled are not embodied in this book. 
There are also sudden transitions from one subject to 
another. This is caused by leaving out the thoughts 
which were delivered orally and which connected the 
thoughts delivered into one harmonious whole. Only 



PREFACE. 5 

enough reference is made to the fact that the matter 
was delivered in lectures to keep up the connection 
and preserve the unity of language and style in accord- 
ance with the fact. As a consequence of the above 
facts, the work will not seem as well written, nor as 
systematically arranged as it otherwise might have 
been. In fact there has been no attempt at scientific 
discussion or arrangement. 

A few words in regard to the style may here not be 
out of place. Every one who reads the lectures will 
notice that many things are repeated, and that others 
are stated in different language. This results from the 
fact that the matter contained in the book was 
originally spoken. For in accordance with the rules 
of rhetoric, any subject must be treated more fully 
when it is delivered in words than when it is written 
upon pajjer. When a speaker is sj^eaking, he knows 
that if he does not make his statements clear, the 
hearers may never have the opportunity of a thorough 
understanding of what he says. Not so, however, when 
the statements are written down, for the writer knows 
that the reader can, if he wishes, refer again and again 
to the written or printed matter. These considerations 
cause a speaker to use more words, and to spend more 
time upon any subject than a writer finds necessary. 
The writer can condense; but the speaker, in order to 
})e understood, must enlarge and amplily. 

A. J. SUKFACUv 

Canton, Ohio, iSeptember, 187G. 



CONTENTS. 

LECTURE 1. 

Introduction — Advantages of aGood Beginning 9 

LECTI RE 11. 

Organization I'O 

LECTURE 111. 

The Necessity oi" Vigilance oH 

LECTURE IV. 

Tlie Assignment oi' Pupils to Heats 48 

LECTURE V. 

The Programme of Recitations 57 

LECTURE VI. 

The Programme Explained 67 

LECTURE Vll. 

Hindrances to Classification 85 

LECTURE VIII. 

System 96 

LECTURE IX. 

Rules .*. 113 

LECTURE X. 

The Treatment of Some Annoyances 128 

LECTURE XI. 

The Teacher's Own Conduct 157 



CONTENTS; 7 

LECTURE Xir. 

How Teachers should Talk 175 

LECTURE XIIL 

What Teachers should Study 190 

LECTURE XIV. 

Punishment.. 209 

LECTURE XV. 

Thoughts for Teachers 21^0 

LECTURE XVI. 

Miscellaneous Matters 242 

LECTURE XVIT. 

Kindness — Conclusion 259 



LECTURES 

ON 

SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



LECTURE I. 



INTRODUCTION A GOOD BEdlNNlNU HALF THE WORK. 

Felloiv- Teachers: — In this, my first lecture to 
you, I shall address myself most to those who have 
never taught, but who are preparing to take upon 
themselvevS the responsibility of the teacher. I hope, 
however, that those who are so fortunate as to have 
passed the ordeal of teaching their first school, will not 
be entirely unprofited. Before I begin the subject 
upon which I am to talk, it may not be amiss to tell 
you something of my experience. I shall do this that 
you may better understand what I shall have to say. 
It is said that we only understand things as they are 



10 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

in accordance with our observation and experience. 
Besides the more of a man's experience we know in re- 
gard to any matter, the better we can appreciate what 
he says in reference to it. We can also understand 
better what he means. 

So I will give you a short outline of my life as a 
teacher, that you may know the reasons why I have 
done as I have done and why I shall speak to you on 
this subject as I intend, and that you may know the 
reasons for saying many things which you would per- 
haps not otherwise clearly discern. 

You must remember however that a man can give 
only the outlines of his experience. He cannot give 
the little and varied minutia that fill it up. 

I have taught in all kinds of schools, from the dis- 
trict school in the country to the graded school of a 
village of several thousand inhabitants. I have taught 
in all grades from the primary department to the su- 
perintendency in which there was but little teaching, 
but a great deal of governing, controlling and managing. 

At each place where I have taught it has been my 
lot to take charge of schools which were said to be dif- 



INTRODUCTION. 11 



ficult to govern. So that it has fiillen to my lot at 
every change I have made, to reduce pupils to obedi- 
ence, who had before been very refractory. In fact, I 
have always had schools which were hard to control, 
whether I was in the position of teacher or superin- 
tendent. 

I have been called a rigid disciplinarian. Perhaps 
my having had hard schools to teach has had something 
to do in making me so. I think that it was only by 
my rigidity in government that I have been a successful 
disciplinarian. 

It is likely, too, that the experience I have had in 
controlling difficult schools will have much to do in 
giving to my talks to you a certain sharpness and sever- 
ity, with which they would otherwise not have been 
tinged. I will say that I have never been more rigid 
than I thought the necessity of the school demanded. 
If I were teaching a school which is easily governed I 
should adopt no stern rules. I will at present not al- 
lude further to my experience but will let you gather 
it from what I shall hereafter say. 

I must however say that I do not want you to follow 



12 SCHOOL (GOVERNMENT. 

my instructions implicitly, as if there was no other way 
in which the teacher could attain success in govern- 
ment. Every man ought to be himself, and ought to 
follow the dictates of his own judgment, rather than 
imitate some other person. No system by which an- 
other works will exactly suit you. You must make 
plans for yourselves. Yet the more you see and hear 
of the plans of others the better you can arrange a sys- 
tem of your own. The plans for managing and govern- 
ing a school, which my experience and observation have 
suggested to me, will only be of advantage to you, that 
you may evolve your own plans out of them. Teachers 
can make better plans of their own after they have ob- 
served and examined the workings of the plans of 
others. Even if they make use of the identical plans 
of others, their observation, and (after they begin teach- 
ing,) their experience will suggest changes to suit the 
circumstances under which they are teaching. How 
many ways there are of doing a thing, no one can tell 
until he has visited other schools than his own, or un- 
til he has heard others tell how they govern their 
schools. Therefore it is the duty of the teacher to 



INTRODUCTION. 13^ 



visit other sdiools, to read what he can. to attend lec- 
tures, and Teachers Institutes and Associations to see 
and hear how and what others have done to manage 
their schools. 

Many young, inexperienced persons think all that 
is necessary to become a teacher is a smattering knowl- 
edge of those branches of study in which the law re- 
quires them to be examined in order to get a certificate. 
There never was a greater mistake. Many never aspire 
higher than to be able to pass the examination, and 
above all to get a situation. 

Every art, every science, every trade and every pro- 
fession requires years of study and practice. If it re- 
quires a long apprenticeship to be able to work well in 
wood, or metal, or stone, how much more study and 
observation ought it to rec^uire of one who works on 
minds, which are of infinite more importance than a few 
blocks or lumps of earthy matter ! How much more 
important is the mental and moral education of a man 
than the work of his hands ! If the artisan or mechan- 
ic make a mistake, it can readily be rectified, but if 
the teacher make a mistake, and thereby causes any of 



14 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

his pupils to become vicious, disobedient, immoral or 
deprives him of the opportunity to gain an education, it 
can never be wholly made right ; but its influence and 
effects must go on to the end of time and perhaps ex- 
tend into eternity. 

A teacher can shirk some of his work in the school- 
room, he can shirk giving instruction, but the respon- 
sibility of government he cannot. It forces itself upon 
him. He cannot by any means whatever rid himself 
of it. He may try to avoid any responsibility by not 
attending to the matter which causes the responsibility, 
but that will only bring increased responsibility. Dif- 
ficulties will arise ; they must be met ; they cannot 
otherwise be avoided than by entailing greater difficul- 
ties. They must be overcome, or they will overcome 
the teacher. Often when the teacher least expects any 
trouble, it comes suddenly upon him. It often comes 
from an unexpected source, in an unexpected manner. 
If teachers had any means of knowing when troubles 
were coming and whence and how they would come, 
they would prepare for them. Unfortunately this is 
not the case. Very often the teacher is unexpectedly 



INTRODUCTION, 15 



called upon to decide an important matter in a moment. 
Not even a minute of time is given him for considera- 
tion. This being the case, it is readily seen how much 
his knowledge, experience, observation and study will 
help him to make a just and proper decision. 

The teacher's true business is to teach, to instruct, 
to train the mind to think ; but in order that he may 
do so he must have order in his school. Then it fol- 
lows that the teacher's first duty is to procure order. 
It is said that order is Heaven's first law. It must 
likewise be the first law of the school. 

It is the design of these lectures, as you all know, to 
give you a few practical hints on the subject of school 
government or rather school management ; for if a school 
be well governed it will be well managed. I shall 
not extend my remarks to the subject, '-How to teach" 
but shall, as far as possible, conform myself to the sub- 
ject, "How to control, govern, and manage a school, so 
that the teacher can teach most successfully and thor- 
oughly." The two subjects sometimes seem to run to- 
gether and blend into each other, so that if at any time 
I trespass, I trust it will be seen that this almost un- 
separable intimacy is the cause. 



16 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

It is the teacher.s best policy, and I believe that it 
is his highest duty, to conduct and govern his pupils in 
such a manner that he will have as few offenders as 
possible. We know that some teachers are constantly 
reproving or punishing some one for misbehaving in 
some way. On the other hand we know that others 
very rarely punish or reprove a pupil, and yet seem to 
have model schools. Now, if the teacher can keep his 
school (|uietand orderly without reproof or punishment, 
he will be doing a great work, not only for himself, but 
also for his pupils, and still greater for the community 
in which he is teaching. For there is no doubt that 
men as well as children are hardened by being contin- 
ually reprimanded and punished, or, by seeing others 
reprimanded and punished. You are all anxious to 
know how you can get along without punishment and 
still have orderly schools. I am glad to inform you 
that there is more than one way of repressing disorder, 
confusion, disobedience, and all other evils against which 
the teacher must contend. 

Having now given you the prelinnnaries which I 
have thought it necessary to mention before entering 



A GOOD BEGINNING. 17 



upon the subject proper, I will now enter upon the con- 
sideration of the subject. 

The first thing necessary for maintaining a good 
school is a good beginning. "A good beginning is half 
the work/' is an old Greek maxim. This is pre-emi- 
nently the case in school teaching in our common 
schools. No one can overestimate the benefits result- 
ing from a good beginning. It is a God-send to the 
efforts of one who expects to adopt teaching as a pro- 
fession. Do not understand me to mean that no teacher 
will be successful who does not make a good beginning. 
What I mean is that one who begins well has much in 
his favor, while the one who does not has much to pre- 
vent his future success. Indeed the future success of 
one who does not make a good beginning will only be 
assured by much harder work than if he would have 
begun better. The one who makes a good beginning 
will thereafter have very little trouble, while the one 
who does not will have not only the difficulties inci- 
dent to every school to overcome, but will also have to 
overcome the effects of his ill-success at the outset. 
Besides by beginning well the teacher will have more 
unbounded success. 



18 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

The first day of school taught by one who expects to 
become a professional teacher, is perhaps the most im- 
portant day of his life. Upon the success of the man- 
agement of his school on that day depends in a greater 
or less degree his success or failure as a teacher. But 
even if his success or failure does not, his like or dislike 
for the profession may depend upon it. If many trying 
emergencies arise on the first day and the teacher is 
unprepared to meet them, he will think the business of 
teaching a very irksome and laborious one. The busi- 
ness will be much harder to one who is entirely un- 
prepared. The teacher who thus acquires a dislike to 
the profession may finish the term, but will very likely 
leave it at its close. On the other hand, if the teacher 
has considered well his first day's duties and is prepared 
to meet all pressing emergencies that arise, teaching 
will be a pleasure. Though he may be very weary at 
the end of his first day's labor, he will long for the next 
to begin. He disposed of all hindrances so well the 
first day that he wants to see how well he can do there- 
after. For it is human nature to like to have the abil- 
ity to dispose of difiiculties as they arise. A teacher 



A GOOD BEGINNING. 19 

who thinks he has his plans well matured, will be anxi- 
ous to put them into operation ; just as any young man 
preparing for any other profession, or business, if well 
prepared, will long for the time when his probation will 
cease and his true life work will begin. Then, I say to 
you, prepare well beforehand. ''Study well your first 
case" is the advice of an eminent lawyer to his students. 
So, to the young person intending to teach it may be 
said, study well your first school. Know all its faults ; 
know the reason of the success of your predecessors who 
have been successful ; know also the reason of the fail- 
ure of those who have been unsuccessful, if any have 
been so unfortunate. Above all, know as well as you 
can, what kind of pupils you will have, what difiicul- 
ties you will encounter, and last, but not least, know 
well the parents of your pupils. 



LECTURE IT. 



ORXJANIZATION. 

I have hitherto been addressing my remarks to those 
who have never taught. You who have taught will of 
course have received little or no benefit from what has 
just been said, because you have already run the gaunt- 
let (if T may so speak) of having taught your first day 
of school. I shall now enter upon a subject which will 
be profitable to you all. Yet I am well aware that 
those who have taught can more readily understand me, 
and will therefore be most profited. Yet, if you, who 
have not yet taught, will retain what I now have to 
say, you will, I think, find it of much advantage to 
you in your first attempt to organize a school. 

The first day of a term, or the first day of the school 
year, is the most important day of the term, or the year. 
This is especially the case if the teacher has not before 
taught in that place. 



EMBARRASSIN(} QUESTIONS. 21 

On taking charge of a strange school the teacher 
will naturally encounter many embarrassing questions 
which will present themselves. It is much better to 
have these questions disposed of before the term begins, 
as far as they can then be, than to leave them until the 
term has actually begun. When a teacher goes into a 
town or district where he is unacquainted with the 
school and its wants, he will be placed in a very awk- 
ward position, if he does not know exactly what he 
ought to do. Let him have his plans ever so well di- 
gested, he will be embarrassed by many things which 
will be entirely unexpected. How much more will he 
feel himself embarrassed, and at a loss what to do, if he 
has no plans at all. Now. though I do not suppose that 
any one ever goes into a school house to begin a term 
of school, without thinking some of what he will do, 
how he wdll begin and what he will say the first morn- 
ing ; yet. there are many who consider very little the 
many arduous duties they are to assume and the hard 
work that will be placed before them. 

In order to be well prepared for your first day, you 
should learn all you can of the school before the term 



22 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



opens. As I said in my first lecture, you should study 
well your first school before you begin it. I may here 
say as an echo to this, study well every school before 
you begin it. You can learn many things, before the 
term opens, from the patrons of the school and the 
people of the town and district, and even from those 
who will be your pupils. For this purpose you ought 
to be in the town or district a week or two before the 
time at which school is to begin. The people with 
whom you will get acquainted will naturally, in their 
conversation with you, turn their attention to the topic 
which they think most interests you. When the con- 
versation is once begun you can learn all you desire 
without even asking a question. The people will tell 
you what kind of a school they have had, how success- 
ful or unsuccessful your predecessors have been. They 
will volunteer all manner of advice. They will readily 
express their opinions on questions connected with man- 
aging schools. Of course their opinions will be difier- 
ent. The teacher can, however, generally extract what 
he wants to know from the many things which will be 
told him. Thus he can prepare himself to assume his 



ARRANGING THE PRELIMINARIES. 23 

duties, without making many mistakes which he would 
not otherwise avoid. 

The teacher wants to feel his responsibility the first 
morning, but he does not want to betray this feeling. 
He ought to go into the schoolroom with all the assur- 
ance possible, just as though it were an old business 
with him. The more he acts as though he understood 
his business, the more readily and easily success will 
be attained. 

Before the teacher does anything at organizing the 
school, he ought to see that every thing is properly ar- 
ranged, — the furniture and apparatus properly disposed. 
He ought not to call the pupils to order until all pre- 
liminaries are disposed of, and he is entirely ready to 
take the names of the pupils and organize the classes. 
The reason that I recommend this course is, that the 
pupils, while the teacher is arranging the preliminaries, 
will get impatient and will begin to whisper, or to do 
something which is as bad, if not worse. Moreover, the 
teacher will very likely, by thus arranging everything 
beforehand, prevent some confusion and some tricks 
which the worst boys will be inclined to play while his 



24 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



back is turned or his attention is drawn to these mat- 
ters. Besides they can just as well be attended to be- 
fore calling the school to order as not. 

Let us here notice in this connection the principle of 
human nature, that even grown persons get impatient 
when proceedings in any assembly, or in any public 
meeting, drag slowly along. Children are much more 
easily made impatient when they have nothing to do. 

When the teacher has everything ready to go right 
to work, he may call the school to order. This ought 
not to be done in a loud, boisterous manner but rather 
quietly and calmly. When all have taken their seats, 
and everything is quiet, the teacher may look thought- 
fully over his audience and make his inaugural speech. 
He may tell his pupils that he is glad to see them, and 
that he is pleased to know that there are so many in 
that town or neighborhood who want to learn some- 
thing. Or, if there are only a few present, he may ex- 
press his regrets that there is such a small number who 
want an education, but that he hopes there will be 
others who will attend by and by. He may also tell 
them that he has come among them for the purpose of 



ARRANGING PRELIMINARIES. 26 



teaching them, but that he may be able to teach them 
and that they may be able to learn, they must be quiet, 
orderly, obedient and attentive, and that they must 
be diligent in studying their lessons. He ought to 
tell them that he expects them to do as near right as 
they know how. He may also tell them, that he hopes 
that they will get along pleasantly together ; that he 
expects to labor hard for their good, and that he hopes 
that they, themselves, will work hard for their own 
good. After the teacher has finished his remarks he 
ought to call upon the school officers or any prominent 
citizens, who may be present, to make a few remarks. 

After these are through speaking he may begin to 
take the names of the pupils. While he is doing this, 
there is likely to be a tendency to confusion and dis- 
order, which should by no means be allowed. Any 
whispering or other unnecessary noises should imme- 
diately be suppressed, kindly but firmly. Every 
species of insubordination should be nipped in the bud. 
Beginning thus early to regulate the conduct of the 
pupils will have a very good effect. 

After the teacher has taken the names, he ought 



26 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

perhaps to call the roll to see whether he left out any^ 
and whether he has made any mistake. He ought here 
to be very careful not to make any mistakes in names, 
because mistakes in names are very apt to excite mirth 
in a certain class of pupils, which may so early in the 
term be the first step towards demoralization. In 
order to prevent mistakes, as far as possible, the teacher 
may pass slips of paper (prepared beforehand) to all 
those who can write their names, at the same time tel- 
ling each to write his name with his age upon it. From 
these slips he can make up his roll. Making a regular 
roll ought, however, not to be done until recess. These 
slips will also help him to get the names of those who 
cannot write, for many of those who cannot write will 
have brothers or sisters who have thus handed their 
names in on the written slips. Besides, these names 
thus written, will help the teacher to spell the strange 
names which we are sure to meet in nearly every com- 
munity. I may here add that there will be this addi- 
tional advantage in the teacher's coming into the dis- 
trict a week or two before the school begins, that he 
will learn many names which would otherwise be 
strange to him. 



ARRANGING PRELIMINARIES, 27 



Now the teacher is ready for the organization of the 
classes. In order to keep the pupils busy and thus 
prevent any tendency to mischief or disorder, while the 
teacher is organizing the classes, he may assign a read- 
ing lesson to all, by telling them that they may study 
the first reading lesson in the reading book, or readers 
which they have with them. Here, perhaps, the pupils 
will be very apt to ask questions, some wanting to 
know which is the first lesson, others wanting to say 
they have yet no books, and others that the first lessons 
are torn out of their books, and others will be wanting 
other things. All these want to know what they shall 
do about their several cases. The teacher can prevent 
many questions by saying that they must now do the 
best they can, and that he will attend to those things 
after awhile, for he does not want to be bothered while 
he is organizing, arranging and classifying the pupils 
into classes. All this should be done deliberately, the 
teacher all the time taking care to prevent any thing 
which ought not to be allowed. After he has thus as- 
signed a reading lesson, and disposed of all questions. 
he may go on and organize his classes. In order to do 



28 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

this, it would, perhaps, be better to call out each class 
to the recitation seat, or. if there are no recitation seats, 
to the place and into the position, he expects his classes 
to be in while they are reciting. 

It will perhaps be best to begin with the Grammar 
or Geography, or other higher grades of classes, and go 
down the grade to the least advanced, telling each as 
he assigns their lessons what they will next recite. 

In the organization of each class, the teacher may 
ask the members of the class how far they have been ; 
how long they have studied the subject ; what authors 
they have used ; and such other questions as he would 
like to have answered, before he assigns a lesson. He 
ought, perhaps, not to ask any question on the subject 
matter of the book. 

In this manner he can call out and dispose of each 
class. When he has thus gone through with all the 
classes he can think of, he may ask the school whether 
there is any class or any study which he has forgotten, and 
he may tell the pupils, if there is any that he has omit- 
ted, the pupils in that class shall raise their right hands. 

I think it well, when the teacher thus calls out the 



ARRANGING PRELIMINARIES. 29 



pupils of each class, for the purpose of arranging them 
into classes and assigning lessons, to take the name of 
e^eh pupil in the class upon a slip of paper. (He can 
do this much more readily if he has already taken the 
names as I have before recommended.) By doing this 
he will have the names of all his pupils as they are 
classified. Afterward, before he knows the pupils by 
their names, during the time he is hearing the differ- 
ent classes recite, he can make good use of these papers 
containing the list of names of the members of the class, 
by placing the slips into the books which he holds in 
his hands, and upon which he looks while hearing the 
class recite, so that he can call upon the pupils to re- 
cite as he has their names written upon the slips of 
paper. Thus he will make no mistakes and will also 
be calling upon the pupils by name from the very first 
recitation. He will likewise, by this means, learn the 
names of the pupils much more readily and rapidly. 
Besides he will not need to ask numberless questions 
about the names of pupils. 

After having disposed of all these matters, the teach- 
er can begin recitations by hearing his reading classes 



30 SCHOOL (iOYERNMENT. 



read the lessons which he assigned. As the chisses are 
reciting he can make such suggestions, as he sees proper, 
in regard to books and other matters. He sliould also 
make such changes as he thinks necessary. 

In doing all these things the teacher, as I have said 
before, ought to have all his plans well matured. If 
he does everything in a bungling manner, the pupils 
wdll very soon notice it. Tt is the nature of most 
pupils, when they learn that their teacher is embarrassed, 
to tr}^ to increase his embarrassment rather than re- 
move it. 

A teacher who wishes to be a snccessfnl disciplina- 
rian, must be careful every day. nay. T must say. every 
hour, every minute of the first few days of school, to 
see that everything not allowable is suppressed. 

The teacher cannot have a definite programme the 
first day. so J would recommend that next after read- 
ing he call the grammar or geography classes to recite, 
and so on down to the lower grade of classes. In the 
afternoon he may hear the other classes for which he 
did not have time dui'ing the morning. 

Thus we have pointed out the teachers first day's 



ARRANGING PRELIMINARIES. 31 

work, as nearly as it can be definitely done. The sec- 
ond day he ought to have everything ready to follow a 
programme, which he ought to arrange and put on the 
blackboard, or post up conspicuously in some part of 
the room, where all the pupils who can read can see it. 
We will have more to say about the programme when 
we get further along. 

Before dismissing school the first day, it may be well 
for the teacher to make a few remarks recapitulating 
what he said in the morning, and slightly touching 
upon the events of the day. He may tell his pupils 
that he is glad that they have gotten along pleasantly 
80 far. There is nothing like commending pupils when 
they deserve it. He can also say that he anticipates a 
pleasant time during the term. Then he may branch 
out upon the benefits of a good school and a finished 
education. He may also say that in order to learn 
they must study, and that they may be able to study 
they must be quiet, orderly and obedient. The teach- 
er may go on and tell them that it is not for his bene- 
fit that he must restrain them, but that it is entirely 
for their own. He must make his pupils believe that 



32 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

he is working, that he is laboring and that he is study- 
ing for their good ; that if he had his wish, he would 
not restrain them at all, for it would be much pleas- 
anter to him never to deprive them of anything they 
wanted, nor to disagree with them, nor interfere with 
any of their plans. These facts ought to be kept be- 
fore their minds. No one can tell how much good such 
talks do. 

The skillful teacher will every now and then during 
the term thus speak to his pupils, noting their progress 
in deportment and commending them for it if they de- 
serve it. Yet a teacher must not talk too much. It 
is better to talk too little than too much. 

Everything you do the first few days will be reported 
at home by the pupils, and will be commented on by 
many of the parents and brothers and sisters of the 
pupils. If on the first day or two of the school a pupil 
is reproved or punished for any act that he may have 
done, the parents generally will say that it was right 
for the teacher to do so. But if a pupil has done some- 
thing which he ought not to have done, and goes un- 
punished or unreproved, the parents will just as readily 



ARRANGING PRELIMINARIES. 33 



pass uncomplimentary remarks on the teacher's manner 
of conducting the school. 

You cannot be too careful at the beginning of the 
term. All these remarks, or many of them, are heard 
by the pupils and are treasured up by them for the 
future. I wish that I could by these lectures, reach 
more of the parents of the school-pupils of our land. 
I would here throw in a few paragraphs of advice to 
them. They have much to do with the success of the 
teachers of their children. Children are very much in- 
fluenced by what they hear at home in reference to the 
school. 

After the first day's school the pupils will confer 
with each other in regard to the teacher's manner of 
conducting the school. We have often heard them on 
their way home talking about the prospect whether the 
teacher is going to be cross, and telling those who were 
not at school and confiding in their friends whom they 
see soon after. Pupils know pretty well about what is 
right. They generally know when they are doing 
about right, and they likewise know pretty well when 
the teacher is doino- what is best for the school. If 



34 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



the teacher has done his duty well and faithfully the 
first day. they will in their hearts commend him, but 
ifhehasnot they will just as quickly condemn him. 

In the country or in a small town the conversation 
of the people for a few days after the school begins will 
be much about the school and its teacher. Even the 
loafers upon the street corners, and the women folks of 
the family by their talk and by their actions, have 
much to do in making a school successful or otherwise. 
If a pupil undertakes to play a trick at school and is 
headed off (as the boys say), persons not connected 
with the school who talk about it. will laugh at the 
boy and will praise the teacher ; but if the pupil comCvS 
it over the teacher (as they say), the laugh will be the 
other way, and the pupil will be praised. A boy who 
has been caught and punished for doing something the 
first few days of school, will not be so likely to do so 
again when he knows that he will be ridiculed and 
sneered at by those with whom he associates and those 
whom he passes upon the street. 

But on the other hand if he is successful in accom- 
plishing what he undertakes, and eludes the eye of the 



ARRANGING PRELIMINARIES. 35 

teacher, or evades or escapes punishment, he is patted 
on the back, told that he is sharp — sharper than the 
teacher, he will very likely try to play the same trick 
or be guilty of the same misdemeanor. He will also 
lead others to do so and will himself attempt to do 
other things. 

These reproaches or promptings of outsiders, go far 
to repress or encourage insubordination and disobedi- 
ence in school. So you need not be surprised at my 
saying that the loafers of a town or neighborhood, have 
something to do in the government of the schools. 



LECTURE in. 



THE NECESSITY OF VIGILANCE. 

^So many things crowd upon my mind that I would 
like to tell you, which T think a teacher ought to 
know, but which he cannot well learn except by expe- 
rience. My second lecture gave you a few hints on 
matters connected with organization ; in this I propose 
to treat of other matters more or less intimately con- 
nected with the opening of a term of school. 

At the beginning of the term many teachers tell their 
pupils that they will let them do as they like for the 
first few days, or even for the first week, that they may 
see what kind of pupils they are, so that they will know 
what rules to adopt. If the teacher does not tell the 
pupils this he acts as if he did, which has the same ef- 
fect. You may be sure that the pupils generally will 
take advantage of such a policy ; they will like to do a 



GOOD ORDER. 37 



great many things which ought not to be allowed in 
any school. I think every teacher who follows such a 
policy makes a sad mistake. 

A teacher should have just such order the first 
day as he wants during the rest of the term. In 
fact, he must begin the first day, and persevere 
in keeping such order as he wants during the 
whole term. By doing so his pupils will soon 
learn that he intends to have order and will, in a short 
time, fall in with his plans and will generally thereafter 
go along without much trouble. Whereas if the teach- 
er allows them to do as they please, the first few days, 
they will just as naturally fall in with this plan. In- 
deed pupils much more easily fall in with the plan of 
doing as they please. At the beginning of a term of 
school, pupils are expecting limitations and curtailments 
of their privileges, and will not then be so easily offen- 
ded at being deprived of any doubtful privilege, even 
if they think it a stretch of the teacher's authority. 
But if he allows his pupils a great many privileges for 
a few w«eks it then creates great 'dissatisfaction if he 
begins to curtail them. 



38 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



If you keep good order the first day, requiring every- 
thing to be done just as you want it done, the pupils ' 
will come to school the second day expecting that every 
thing will be done just as it was the first day ; they 
will likewise expect the same general plans to be fol- 
lowed. Indeed they will think that the teacher will 
be more likely to be more exacting than otherwise, be- 
cause he has more knowledge of what is necessary and 
knows more of the classes, of the pupils, and of the 
Bchool as a whole. But if the teacher has been loose 
in his discipline the first day, the pupils will expect ' 
the second to be a repetition of the first. 

After a school has been going on some time, the pu- 
pils begin to think that they have a right to do as they 
have all along been doing. This is especially the case 
with them if they have been rather laxly governed. 
When the teacher, who has not been very careful in 
discipline, forbids their doing something which they 
have been accustomed to do, they will think that it is 
depriving them of some of their rights. If a pupil in 
school once does anything without having his attention 
called to it in any way, unless it is a very flagrant 



(JOOD ORDER. 39 



wrong, he will naturally suppose that he can do so 
again without being subjected to either reproof or pun- 
ishment. He will not only do so again but will go a 
little further, and will do something else a little worse. 
His example is contagious, for he leads other pupils to 
do the same thing, and others equally bad and even 
worse. 

For instance, nothing has been said about going to 
the water bucket, and a pupil goes there for the pur- 
pose of getting a drink, without having asked permis- 
sion, and then takes his seat without having any- 
thing said to him by the teacher ; he will very natural- 
ly think that the teacher intends to allow the pupils to 
go to the bucket whenever they feel like getting a 
drink, without asking permission to do so. Now, 
though I do not think that running to the bucket is a 
very grievous wrong, yet other pupils will observe what 
this pupil has done and will themselves think that they 
will be permitted to do the same. Therefore others 
will go to the bucket, perhaps only a few at first, but 
in time they will go often and oftener until there may 
at times be half a dozen crowding around it waiting 



40 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



their turns to get a drink. While so many are around 
the bucket there will very likely be more or less jam- 
ming, pushing, pinching one another and disputing 
about who shall next have the cup or dipper. Many 
of my hearers no doubt have seen just such scenes as I 
have alluded to in the above paragraph. Besides pu- 
pils will not only go to the bucket but will leave their 
seats to go out, and for every other purpose they can 
conjure up in their minds. 

If they are not restrained they will go further and 
further in their encroachments on leaving their seats, 
until the school will present to an outsider, who does 
not know it is a school, the appearance of a public sale 
or a political mass-meeting. 

I have given the above as only one way in which a 
school may be ruined by a very little thing. It may 
also be done in other ways, by which the pupils from 
time to time push their gains further and further into 
the restraints which a proper discipline requires. I 
may mention whispering as another vice which will be- 
come a heinous school crime if not checked in its rapid 
course. vSuch a disgrace to any school can be prevent- 



ESTABLISHING ORDER. 41 



€d by a mere word or two from the teacher, spoken at 
the proper time. So I will say, begin the first day and 
maintain every day thereafter, just such order and 
adopt and carry out such regulations as you want dur- 
ing the whole term of school. I shall perhaps again 
have occasion to speak of the tendencies of these vices, in 
treating of another subject nearly akin to the one now 
under discussion. 

I have long ago learned that it is much harder to 
obtain good order after teaching some time with loose 
reins, than it is by having good order the first day 
and keeping it throughout the term. Again, when a 
school once gets into a way of going it is much more 
difficult to get it into another way of going than to get 
it into that way at first. So I will say again, much 
the better and easier way for a teacher to do, is to be- 
gin at once with such a school as he wants all the time. 

There is this additional consideration to be weighed 
by every one, that a teacher who once gets used to a 
noisy school, will think that there is something wrong 
when there is not the usual amount of noise. I once 
heard a teacher make the remark, that he thought there 



42 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

was something the matter with the pupils when there 
were not two or three upon the floor, passing across here 
and there for some purpose or another. It is the same 
if a teacher gets used to the shuffling of feet, the rat- 
tling of slates on the desks, or the murmuring of the 
pupils making a noise with their lips, either in study- 
ing or whispering. A teacher may never know that 
there is so much noise and confusion, until he visits 
some quiet school and sees the contrast, or until his at- 
tention is called to the matter in some other way, per- 
haps by visitors or by the school officers. 

When a school has become very turbulent, it is a 
very hard task to bring it back to the proper discipline. 
Many more men have the faculty of keeping a thing as 
it should be, than of making it what it should be. 

A School can, however, be brought from the worst 
state to a good condition. I will now devote myself to 
the consideration of a plan for the teacher who has 
been so unfortunate as to make a poor beginning, and 
has thereby let his school drift into the whirlpool of 
disorder and confusion. 

When a teacher sees that his school is not what it 



ESTABLISHING ORDES. 43 



should be, in order to improve it, lie should ask the at- 
tention of his pupils, and require them strictly to listen 
to what he has to say. He should then tell them, in a 
few words, that the school is not what he wishes it to 
be, and that he has determined that there must be a 
change for the better. The best time to do this, would 
perhaps be in the evening, just before dismissing, in 
order to give the pupils till the next morning to think 
and talk over the matter. As it is a change, there will 
be considerable talk about the matter, not only among 
the pupils but among many others, especially those who 
are generally posted on school news. This, itself, will 
have a good eifeot, for all men look forward to a change 
with hope. 

Next morning as soon as school has been called to 
order, the teacher can in a few words, refer to what he 
said the evening before, and add that he is determined 
to carry out what he has determined upon. After say- 
ing this he may further state that they will now pro- 
ceed to the regular exercises, and that the first and 
every attempt at disorder must have its proper punish- 
ment. Then if ever vigilance, perseverance, energy 



44 SCHOOL G0VERN3IENT. 

and firmness were necessary in the school room, they 
are demanded. The teacher should not for a few days 
pay so much attention to the recitations of his classes, 
as to the subject of maintaining the order which he 
most desires. 

He should then, by all means, know everything that is 
going on in the school room. The first thing tending 
to upset his determinations should be promptly dealt 
with. It will not be long after these declarations of 
the teacher, until some one will give him an opportu- 
nity to show that he is sincere in what he says. Some 
severe measures may be required, but it will not take 
many instances to show to the pupils that he really 
intends to maintain the proper decorum. The teacher 
should then correct every irregularity and annex a 
penalty for every action which ought not to be done in 
the school room. 

Before taking charge of a school it is well that the 
teacher consider that pupils will soon learn him, (if I 
may so speak), and that they will do little things the 
first few days, to see how far they can go, without be- 
ing called to order. It may be well enough, too, for 



PERSEVERANCK. . 45 



him to consider that they anxiously want to know how 
far they can go, and that they want to see what liber- 
ties they will have, as well as what restraints will be 
imposed upon them. Very naturally the first thing 
which pupils undertake in order to learn the teacher's 
disposition, and to gratify their tongues is to whisper. 
If they are permitted to do this, they next do something 
else perhaps a little worse, and so go on from bad to 
worse. In feet, there is no limit to which pupils will 
not push their aggressions if they are not checked. 

Pupils will also soon learn how persevering a teach- 
er will be. When they once find that he is not perse- 
vering they will themselves persevere in their efforts to 
attain any end they may have in view. This being the 
case, the question is merely which will out-persevere, — 
the pupil or the teacher. When the pupils once learn 
that the teacher is not tenacious in his purposes they 
will be so, they know that it will only take time and 
perseverance to accomplish whatever they may desire. 
Therefore I say persevere in the beginning of your 
school in all you do and in all you undertake. Do not 
let your pupils know at the start that they can excel 



46 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



you in this necessary qualification. An eminent edu- 
cator says that there are but few pupils who will not, 
in time, yield to a continued pressure. It is best to 
put on this pressure at the very beginning. A few in- 
stances of the suppression of disorder will often con- 
vince the pupils that nothing but implicit and absolute 
submission will satisfy the teacher. But if a few in- 
stances will not suffice, many should be resorted to. 

I will here speak of another very necessary qualifi- 
cation for a teacher — firmness. This is especially de- 
manded at the opening of a term of school, in a place 
where there has previously been trouble between the 
teacher and pupils. When your pupils have learned 
that you are determined to have things as you want 
them, they will very readily accede to your terms ; but 
if they have learned that you are wavering, undecided, 
fluctuating and indetermined, they will take advantage 
of that defect in your character. Firmness at the head 
of an army has turned many a defeat into a victory ; so 
in the school room, firmness on the part of the teacher, 
has prevented many a failure. 

We will not have time here to discuss another very 



PERSEVERANCE. 47 



important characteristic of every good disciplinarian. I 
refer to attention to little things. There is nothing 
that contributes so much to success in government as 
looking after all the details of the multifarious matters 
of every school. We must console ourselves with the 
thought that there will very likely be time at some 
time during this course of lectures to treat of this sub- 
ject more fully- 



LECTURE IV 



THE ASSIGNMENT OF PUPILS TO SEATS. 

You all perhaps remember that in my first lecture, 
I intimated that it is much better to prevent a pupil 
from doing a wrong than to punish him after he ha^* 
done it, for the purpose of inducing him and others not 
again to do the same or some other wrong. T then told 
you that the first plan to prevent school vices, was to 
begin well. I have kept that in view constantly, dur- 
ing all my talks in the three lectures already delivered. 
I shall now enter upon a second method for disciplining 
and managing a school ; for preventing school vices 
and school crimes. 

So long as temptation is within reach of a pupil he 
will be likely to yield to its influence. Children are, 
in this respect as well as in most others, not at all un- 
like older folks. We all know that adult persons are 
easily tempted, when the temptation draws them in the 



ASSIGNMENT TO SEATS. 49 

direction tlieir inclinations, passions, or appetites dictate. 
If we can entirely remove the temptation to do a wrong, 
we have accomplished very much to prevent that wrong. 
No person is likely to do a wrong or commit a crime 
without being led to do so by something outside of him- 
self which tempts him. The most abandoned drunkard 
is tempted by the near presence of liquor. 

So it is with pupils in school. If a teacher seats two 
pupils together, who are very apt to whisper or play 
tricks, or do other mischief, he is placing a very great 
temptation before them, and they may not be able to 
resist it, unless there is a very great restraint placed 
upon them. I must here say that the restraint must 
overbalance the temptation, or the pupils will yield. 
With some pupils the restraint must be greater than 
with others. Indeed we all know that some pupils do 
not need to be restrained at all. 

The first day of the term I would let the pupils seat 
themselves as they wished, telling them, however, that 
1 would reseat them or change the seat of any one 
whenever I thought it best to do so. Every teacher 
will sooner or later find that the pupils will divide 



50 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



themselves off into little knots or groups, as they are 
divided into circles by the society in which they move 
in every day life, or in their associations out of school. 
Those who are intimate associates before school begins, 
will want to sit together when they are in school. 
Every teacher will also soon discover, that mischievous 
pupils are very sure to get into the same seat, if the 
seats are made for two pupils, if not they get as near 
«ach other as they can. So I would say to my pupils, 
on the first day, that I would allow them to sit where 
they liked and with whom they liked, but as soon as I 
saw or heard any of them whispering, or in any way 
misbehaving I would move them into some other seat 
or separate such as offended. Merely making this an- 
nouncement is enough to deter some from transgressing. 
Then as soon as I observed any conduct calling for 
the separation of two pupils, I would separate them. 
I would, however, be very kind about it, reminding 
them that I had told them on the first day, that if they 
did not conduct themselves properly, that I would put 
them into different seats, and now as they were guilty 
of improper conduct, I would be compelled to do as I 



ASSIGNMENT TO SEATS. 51 

had said I would. By vSo doing the teacher will gain 
two very important ends ; one is, that he will impress 
upon the minds of his pupils that he means just what 
he says, and that he does not forget it ; the other is, 
that he will get the tricky pupils into separate seats or 
into different parts of the house. 

In flict the teacher may gain another very important 
point. For these pupils which the teacher has thus 
put into different seats, may come to him and ask him 
tc allow them to sit together again, at the same time 
promising that they will not ''cut up.'" The teacher 
can then again have an opportunity of showing his 
kindness by allowing them to sit back in their former 
seats, and at the same time put them under the obliga- 
tions of a promise that they will not whisper or misbe- 
have in any way. He will find many instances in which 
he will not need to separate them a second time. They 
will think of their promise and will dislike to be put 
away from their old seat-mates into a seat or near one 
whom they would not associate with out of school. 
These thoughts will often deter them from misconduct. 

I think that, in an instance of this kind, when two 



52 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

pupils who have been seated apart, come to the teacher 
asking him to allow them to take their old seats, prom- 
ising that they will behave, they ought to be allowed 
to do so. T have two reasons for thinking so ; — the first 
is, that the teacher thus shows that he is not at all ar- 
bitrary ; the second is, that they will know that they 
will be again separated if they are found guilty of any 
misdemeanor. These facts will be a restraint upon 
them and will lead them to do better and to practice 
self denial, which is the one virtue above all others that 
children of school age now-a-days need to practice. 
Children are not very likely to practice this virtue un- 
less led to do so by the training of their parents or 
teachers. If the teacher gives these pupils permission 
to resume their former places, the least offense should 
again call forth his authority. 

When he again puts them into different seats, he 
should call to their minds that they had promised that 
they would do better, and that they had now broken 
that promise. When they are separated a second time 
it ought to be with the distinct understanding that they 
were not to be allowed to sit together again. If the 



ASSIGNMENT TO SEATS. 53 



pupils again come to the teacher with their promises, 
he ought merely to remark that they had broken their 
promises once, and that when a person once breaks his 
promise, he is not to be trusted again until he redeems 
himself by a course of good behavior, for a long time, 
and that if they will thus redeem themselves, he will 
perhaps at some time, let them sit together again, and 
then dismiss the subject, telling these pupils that he 
does not want it mentioned to him again. This sum- 
mary way of treating this matter will have a wholesome 
effect upon the rest of the school, especially those who 
may have made any promise. 

You will perceive that I advocate requiring the pupils 
to take a seat and keep it the whole term, unless it is 
changed at the request or order of the teacher. Some 
teachers allow their pupils to sit where they please and 
to change when they please. Others allow what may 
perhaps be some better, that is, their pupils to change 
places by merely asking permission of the teacher. 
He ought not to permit himself to be annoyed by 
any such a matter. He ought to give his pupils to un- 
derstand by his actions, rather than by his words, that 



54 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



he will not give them permissions to change from oq 
seat to another, unless there are the very best of reas- 
ons for so doing. 

It would be much easier for our teachers if all our 
school houses could be furnished with seats so that 
there would be only one pupil to each desk. As this 
cannot be done the teacher will find that it will very 
much lighten his labors to put a mischievous boy by 
himself if there is room enough, or with a very steady 
one, and a tricky girl with a very honest one. It may 
also be well to suggest, that the teacher ought to put 
his worst pupils where he can have his eyes upon them 
most. This will generally be on the front seats near 
the teacher's desk. 

The teacher should also, in the arrangement of the 
places of the different pupils, take into consideration 
that many are in a great measure governed by the eye. 
Pupils will not violate the rules when they know that 
the eye of the teacher is constantly upon them. Every 
one with a guilty intent will quail before an earnest 
look. In order that a teacher may have his eyes, most 
of the time, upon the pupils, he should have his desk 



ASSIGNMENT TO SEATS. 55 

in the middle of one end of the room. If possible, his 
chair and desk or table, should be elevated upon a 
platform about eight inches higher than the floor of 
the room. This platform should be large enough to 
contain the teacher's desk and several chairs. By be- 
ing thus elevated, the teacher either sitting or standing, 
can, if in his place on the platform, see all that is going 
on all over the school-room, much better than if he 
were sitting or standing on the floor on a level with the 
pupils. I do not here mean to say that the teacher 
should all the time be in his place on the platform, but 
that he should have his eyes as much as possible upon 
all the pupils in the room. 

The pupils should be so arranged that the larger 
ones should be on the outside of the outer tier of seats, 
with the girls on one side of the house and the boys on 
the other. To make the last statement plainer, I will 
say that if the seats could be arranged in a semi-circle 
around the teacher's desk as in an amphitheater, the 
larger pupils should be placed in the outer circle of 
seats, the next in size in the next inner tier, and so on 
to the smallest, so that the smaller pupils' places would 



56 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



be in the inmost tier of seats or those nearest the teach- 
er's desk. Thus arranged, the teacher can always see 
the hirger pupils over the heads of the smaller ones. 
Whereas if the larger pupils are scattered promiscuously 
over the room, they can screen each other. 

I do not want it to be understood that I would watch 
my pupils as if I could not trust them, but that I had 
my eyes upon them as if it were my duty and my right. 
I would also have my pupils understand that I could 
see what was going on in every part of the room, inci- 
dentally, while I was hearing recitations and attending 
to my other duties. 



LKCTVRE V. 



THE PROGRAMME OF RECITATION. 

Hitherto in these lectures I have been giving you 
several different modes of preventing infractions of the 
regulations of school. In this I propose to give you 
somewhat of a different kind of a plan for preventing 
those things which tend to bring a school into disre- 
pute and render it unfit for its original purpose, — the 
education of those in attendance. 

The plan I shall to-day present to you, is no other 
than keeping the pupils busy. Keeping pupils busy 
is the best mode of governing them ; it is the best thing 
a teacher can do to keep them out of mischief No one 
can expect an old head on young shoulders. Children's 
natures prompt them to be doing something ; they can 
not, they will not, be idle. If they are not doing that 
which will be a benefit to them, they will be doing 



58 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



sometliing which will be detrimental to themselves, and 
annoying to the teacher or to the school. If he can 
keep them busy he will be a benefactor to them in after 
life, both because they will be acquiring something for 
their future advantage, and will also be kept from fall- 
ing into evil ways. Many a man's course in after life 
is shaped and moulded by his school life. Many a 
man's downward course in vice and crime, is begun by 
his idleness and inattention during his first few months 
at school. I believe that there are now many men 
serving a term in our State prisons whose lives of vice 
and crime have begun in the school room. They have 
there had nothing beneficial to do, and prompted by 
their natures, have sought something in which their 
minds and hands might be busied. As the teacher 
gave them nothing to do which was right, they found 
something to do which was wrong. Can the pupil be 
blamed? If he cannot, who can? Let the teacher 
answer. How great then the responsibility upon the 
teacher ! In a word he holds the destinies of men of 
families, and, it may be, of nations in his hands. 

Then, teachers, you can see the importance of keeping 



PROGRAMME OF RECITATION. 59 



your pupils busy, both for the present success of your 
school in its government, and for the future success in 
life of the pupils under your charge. While they are 
in school keep them so busy that they will not have 
time for misconduct. It takes time to concoct all the 
little schemes which cause disorder and confusion in a 
school. It has been said that a pupil will study a great 
deal harder how to play a trick, and how to escape de- 
tection, than he will to get his lessons. Then, I again 
Bay, keep something in the minds of your pupils, and 
thus keep mischief out. 

The teacher can do much towards keeping his pupils 
busy by the proper arrangement of his schedule or pro- 
gramme of recitations. In a programme, in which a 
pupil's recitations all come together, he will not have 
any time between the recitations to study his lessons. 
Whatever advantages this may have for college students 
or for the older pupils, I am satisfied it is not satisfac- 
tory for the great majority of the children in our com- 
mon schools. By such an arrangement of the pro- 
gramme, the pupil will get tired of studying during the 
time for study, and tired of reciting during the time 



60 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

for recitations. By the proper distribution of recita- 
tions so that each pupil recites his different recitations 
at different times throughout the day, the teacher can 
so arrange the chisses of each pupil, that his recitations 
will occur at such times that the pupil will have enough 
time to study each lesson just before he is called upon 
to recite it. 

After these remarks the skillful teacher can readily 
see the propriety of so arranging his schedule of recita- 
tions that each pupil may study and recite alternately. 
To illustrate : if a pupil has four studies, two ought to 
be recited in the forenoon, one before recess and the 
other after recess ; and two in the afternoon, one before 
recess and the other after. By this method the pupil 
will have time after each recitation to study the lesson 
for his next recitation. If any have more than four 
studies, the time for their recitations ought to be ar- 
ranged to give them time to study accordingly. 

If our common district schools could be better graded 
it would lacilitate very much the arrangement of pro- 
grammes for them. I have endeavored to sketch out a 
programme which I think will be of some benefit to al- 



PROGRAMME OF RECITATION. 61 

most every teacher in our rural, ungraded schools. It 
is by no means perfect, yet it will serve to direct the 
teacher somewhat in this important mattiu-. T know 
that no programme will exactly suit any two schools, 
yet I think the one I here give can be so modified, re- 
modeled and changed, that it may be accommodated to 
almost any common, ungraded school. 

Every teacher should have a programme which 
should be followed with as little variation as possible. 

By having such a programme posted up some where 
in the school room, or written upon the black-board, 
the teacher and pupils will always know what is proper- 
ly before them. Besides, if the teacher has everything 
concerning the times for the recitations and intermis- 
sions, the length of time of each upon his programme, 
he will not be annoyed by the thousand and one ques- 
tions which will certainly be asked if he has not, or if 
he has no programme. Even if he should be asked 
questions when he has his programme properly arranged, 
he can answer them so much more readily and intelli- 
gently. The pupils can. moreover, understand his 
answers much better. Any one who has ever tried it, 



62 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



and written or posted up his programme in a conspicu- 
ous place in the room, has noticed how often those pu- 
pils who can read refer to it. I would not have said so 
much about this matter, but it is a lamentable fact, 
that many teachers in the country teach week after 
week, and even month after month, without any idea 
what classes they will, as a general rule, call first in the 
morning, or what they will call last before the inter- 
mission, before noon, or before dismissal in the evening. 
In fact, many while hearing one class scarcely know 
which they will call next, and thus go on blundering 
along from day to day, from the beginning to the end 
of the term. One could scarcely believe this to be 
true until he visits some of our country schools or 
questions closely the teachers on this topic. I might 
say too, that a schedule of recitations may be of use to 
visitors and especially to school officers. 



PROGRAMME OF RECITATIONS. 



8:30 


Opening Exercises, 


8:35 


5 




8:35 


Chart Class, 


8:45 


10 


15 


8:45 


First Reader, 


8:57 


12 


27 


8:57 


Second Reader, 


9:10 


13 


40 


9:10 


Third Reader, 


9:25 


15 


55 


9:25 


Fourth Reader. 


9:40 


15 


70 


9:40 


Fifth Reader, 


10:00 


20 


90 


10:00 


Recess. 


10:15 


15 




10:15 


Chart Class, 


10:25 


10 


25 


10:25 


First Reader, 


10:37 


12 


37 


10:37 


Second Reader, 


10:50 


13 


50 


10:50 


Grammar, First, 


11:10 


20 


70 


11:10 


Grammar, Second. 


11:30 


20 


90 


11:30 


Writing, 


11:45 


15 


105 


11:45 


Spelling, 


12:00 


15 


120 


12:00 


Noon. 


1:00 


60 




1:00 


Opening Exercises, 


1:05 


5 




1:05 


Chart Class, 


1:15 


10 


15 


1:15 


First Reader, 


1:27 


12 


27 


1:27 


Second Reader, 


1:40 


13 


40 


1:40 


Third Reader, 


1:55 


15 


55 


1:55 


Geography, First, 


2:10 


15 


70 


2:10 


Geography, Second, 


2:25 


15 


85 


2:25 


Mental Arithmetic. 


2:40 


15 


100 


2:40 


Recess. 


3:05 


15 




3:05 


Chart Class, 


3:15 


10 




3:15 


Arithmetic, First, 


3:35 


20 


30 


3:35 


Arithmetic, Second, 


3:55 


20 


50 


3:55 


Spelling. 


4:05 


10 


60 



64 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

By an inspection of the above table of recitations it 
will be seen that it is assumed that schools are called 
to order at half-past eight ; have an hour's noon, and 
dismiss at four or shortly after. Most country schools 
now do this, thouoh some begin sooner and others later 
and dismiss accordingly as is thought proper. Schools 
which begin sooner and dismiss later allow more time 
to the teacher, but as the pupils must then be kept 
longer, they are wearied more and upon the whole, I 
do not think anything is gained. 80, it is my candid 
opinion, that it is better to begin and dismiss as is indi- 
cated in the programme. Tt will also be seen that there 
are only two recesses, — one in the forenoon and one in 
the afternoon. The best teachers now think that it is 
preferable to have two recesses in each half day. 

Another plan still might be suggested which is to 
let the intermissions remain as they are indicated, and 
to let the pupils have two or three minutes to rest 
about midway between the times of each intermission. 
During this time the pupils should lay aside their books, 
sit erect, talk, or sing; but if I adopted this plan, I 
would not allow them to leave their seats. The pupils, 



PROGRAMME OF RECITATION. (55 

where this plan is adopted, should be so trained that 
they will become quiet and resume their studies almost 
instantly at a known signal from the teacher. 

In order to understand the programme fully, it is 
necessary to study it ; study it as you would the multi- 
plication table. T will here, in the few minutes that 
are left for this lecture, enter on a short explanation of 
it. In the first column is given the time at which each 
recitation or exercise begins ; in the second, the study 
which is to recite at that time ; in the third, the time 
at which each recitation ends ; in the fourth, the length 
of time allotted to each, and in the fifth, the time after 
each intermission that each exercise ends. 

I have endeavored to arrange the programme so that 
there will be given to each class the proper proportion 
of time as the necessities of the class seemed to demand. 
Every minute of time is taken up. Every pupil who 
can study is given plenty of time to study his lesson 
before he is called upon to recite. No pupil who is 
properly classified is called to recite one lesson imme- 
diately after having recited another, except some in the 
writing class, which study, however, does not require- 



66 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



any especial preparation before hand. In closing this 
lecture I will say that I will leave the programme upon 
the blackboard until our next lecture, next week, when 
I will more fully discuss it, and give the reasons for the 
several peculiarities contained in it. 

I may here also say that I think it would be a ben- 
efit to most of you to copy the programme, as it here 
stands, in order that you may not lose it, for none of you 
«an, perhaps, remember all its provisions. 



LECTURE VL 



TlIK PROGRAMME EXPLAINED. 

I remarked in my last lecture, last week, that I 
would leave the programme here upon the blackboard, 
that you might study it. I am gratified to learn that 
quite a number have copied it for reference in the fu- 
ture. T also said in my last lecture that I would to- 
day explain many things connected with the pro- 
gramme. 

During the opening exercises, I recommend that 
the teacher read a short chapter or a paragraph 
from the Bible. It will give character to the school. 
With all the better class of people in every community, 
no one thing will so raise the teacher and school in their 
estimation, as reading, every morning, a psalm or a few 
verses of the New Testament. Even those who are not 
members of church will approve of reading an extract 
from the Bible. None, except those who have become 



68 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



prejudiced for some reason or another, will object to 
spend a minute in reading a portion of (lod's word to 
the school. It is true that the highest courts in some 
of our States have decided that reading the Bible in 
school can be prevented. I believe, however, that I 
would recommend to the teacher, to continue reading 
the Bible until he is prevented by order of the lawful 
authorities. This will throw the odium upon the 
school committee, or upon those who have ])revented 
reading. It will also relieve the teacher. He will, in 
this, have all the moral support of the better element 
of every community. Those who are opposed to read- 
ing the word of God in school, are not the proper ones 
to say what education the children and youth of our 
land ought to have. They are not the proper ones to 
lead society. I think that the objections to reading 
out of the sacred volume, are an indirect thrust at the 
whole common school system. 

During the five minutes given for the opening exer- 
cises, is the proper time to make any announcements in 
regard to changes of the programme, or lessons or any- 
thing else the teacher may have to state to the school. 



PROGRAMME OF RECITATION. 69 



It is also the proper time to tell those pupils who have 
been absent what their lessons are. 

The rest of the time should be taken up in singing. 
Nothing so turns the minds of the pupils from their 
play to their study, as a spirited song. It paves the 
way for hard study. There should not be too much 
singing. Perhaps one song in the morning and one at 
noon is enough. 

The Chart Class, or in other words, the pupils in the 
alphabet are arranged to recite first, immediately after 
the opening exercises. This is done for several reasons. 
First, because not knowing how to study, they cannot 
apply their minds ; secondly, while they are reciting 
they will get some ideas uj)on which they will think 
some, after being dismissed from the class to their seats ; 
thirdly, the teacher can give them some work to do 
while they are at their seats, such as making certain 
letters upon their slates, drawing simple pictures or 
maps of such familiar places as the school room, or the 
school grounds, or their own homes ; fourthly, it will 
give the older pupils time to get their lessons. 

I would require every pupil in this class of little 



70 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



folks to have a slate and pencil, and would teach them 
by what is called the Script Method. Some parents 
will of course object, saying that the children will break 
80 many slates and lose so many pencils. In answer to 
this objection, it may truthfully be said that little 
children will be more careful of a slate than of a book. 
And even if a child does break several slates, it will in 
the end be cheaper, than if he tore up or wore out only 
one book. Besides they can now procure book-slates, 
which are light and are not easily soiled or broken. 
Pupils taught according to the plan proposed for the 
instruction of beginners will not need a book until after 
they have been in school three or four months. After 
which time they both know better how to use a book, 
and will go so fast in it, that they are not near so apt 
to tear it or wear it out. Any ingenious teacher can 
teach a class of small pupils much better if they have 
a slate without a book, than if they have only a book 
without a slate. At any rate, whatever plan of teach- 
ing may be followed, this grade of pupils ought to recite 
immediately after each intermission. 

By the programme it will be seen that only ten min- 



PROGRAMME OF RECITATION. 71 

utes have been assigned to each recitation of the Chart 
Class. This is long enough. Time seeais much longer 
to little children than to older folks. A recitation or 
exercise should never last so long that the pupils get 
tired of it. Even men and women, if wearied by a ser- 
mon's being too long, are not so likely to go back to hear 
the preacher again as if the sermon were shorter, leav- 
ing them still willing to listen. So it is with these lit- 
tle pupils of which we have been speaking in regard to 
their recitations. 

After the last recitation of this class in the forenoon 
I would send those home who did not bring their din- 
ners. I would do the same with all of this class after 
their last recitation for the day. As they cannot study 
they have nothing to do after they have finished their 
recitations. Besides, after being confined in the school 
room so long, and kept measurably in one position, they 
need out-door exercise and fresh air. I know that 
many parents will object to this, because they think it 
18 a waste of time. I will say that keeping these child- 
ren longer does no good but often does harm, and is 
really a punishment to them. 



SCHOOL' GOVERNMENT. 



I wish, kindly however, that I coiikl put all parents, 
who think thus dismissing them is a waste of time, into 
their children's places a few days. Parents, when you 
have nothing to do, does not time hang very heavily 
upon your hands? To your children it is doubly, trebly, 
yea, much more so, when they have nothing to do. One 
reason that parents complain of dismissing their child- 
ren before school is out, is doubtless, that many people 
want their children to stay in school to keep them out 
of the way at home. What a sad, sad mistake ! 

The progranmie as you see, has been arranged for 
four recitations each day for this class. Not being able 
to study much, the only time when this class is deriv- 
ing any benefit from school, is while they are reciting, 
consequently as they cannot, on account of immaturity 
of mind, recite so long at a time they ought to recite 
oftener. I would like to say a great deal more on this 
subject, but this lecture being only intended as some- 
what of a guide in school management and arrangement 
for the purpose of thereby better governing the school, 
anything further on the subject of teaching, would be 
foreign to the intentions of the lecturer. 



PROGRAMME OF RECITATION. 73 

The next class which demands our attention, is the 
First Reader. I have put this class next for about the 
game reasons that I put the abecedarians first. They 
will have the ten minutes in which the Chart Class re- 
cites, to study their lessons. This is perhaps about the 
length of time they will profitably apply themselves ta 
study. When they have finished reciting and have 
been dismissed from the recitation bench to their seats, 
most of them will study some on the next lesson which 
has been given them. 

The teacher ought also to give this class some work 
to do on their slates, such as writing, copying the spel- 
Hng connected with their reading lessons, drawing pic- 
tures and maps of places familiar to them. 

They have a little more time for recitation than the 
primer class, because their minds are a little more ma- 
ture and are somewhat trained so that their attention 
can be confined longer to any subject. I have arranged 
for only three recitations a day for the First Reader 
class, because they will derive more benefit from a day's 
school with only three recitations a day, than the A B 
C Class will with four. You will perceive that I am 



74 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

in favor of giving to the classes of smaller pupils more 
personal attention than to the classes of larger ones. 
This is because they require more, and will not, even 
then, learn as much. Now, the First Reader Class can 
use their minds longer, and apply themselves more than 
the Chart Class, both while they are studying and 
while they are reciting. 

During each recitation of the two classes named, I 
would vary the exercises as much as possible, in order 
not to weary their minds. I would have the class read, 
then spell and then write their spelling. I would also 
have them draw. Pupils nearly all like to make pic- 
tures. After a start in drawing, many minutes of their 
time will thus be spent usefully, which would other- 
wise be lost or spent in mischief. I would also send 
this class home when they were done reciting, as I re- 
commended in regard to the Primer Class. 

The Second Reader Class comes next on the pro- 
gramme. I will only say in regard to this class, that 
their minds are sufficiently matured to study pretty 
well, and that I would not dismiss them until the whole 
school was dismissed. I would also have them spell in 



PROGRAMME OF RECITATION. 75 



one of the spelling classes which have a spelling exer- 
cise just before noon and clisiiiissal in the evening. 

Next comes the Third Reader Class. The pupils of 
this class will have writing, spelling, mental arithmetic 
and perhaps geography, so that their time and atten- 
tion will be so taken up that I have thought it best ta 
assign only two reading lessons per day to them. 

The Fourth and Fifth Reader Classes are placed 
next on the schedule. As they will have so many 
other studies, only one reading lesson is assigned to 
them each day. 

In regard to the Fifth and 8ixth Readers, as we 
have them in most of our series of reading books, I will 
say that there is no necessity for both in our common, 
ungraded schools. I would use only one of these books. 
It would not make much difference to me which one, 
as there is very little difference in the grade of advance- 
ment of the two in most series of readers. If pupils 
and parents wished, I would use the Sixth, entirely 
dispensing with the Fifth. But I am satisfied that the 
use of both is a hindrance, rather than a help in our 
common country schools. 



76 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Now we have come to recess in the programme. All 
the pupils have recited once, and many, if they have 
been diligent, have their lessons nearly ready to recite 
again. After recess we begin and proceed as has been 
Btated, until we come to the Grammar Classes to which 
I have given forty minutes of time. There being usu- 
ally two classes in this study, twenty minutes can be 
allowed to each. There should be no more than two ; 
if, however, there are more, the forty minutes allotted 
to Grammar must be divided among them. 

Next in order comes Writing. There is plenty of 
time given to this exercise. Every pupil from the 
Third Reader up ought to write. It is preferable to 
get copy-books with prepared printed copies. As 
the pupils can learn so much faster from them, they 
will in the end be the cheapest. Besides, in writing 
after a copy set by the teacher, the pupils will copy all 
the teacher's faults ; nor can any teacher set two copies 
precisely alike. Furthermore, it is best for any one 
learning, to get his first impressions of anything from 
the most perfect forms. Then you can all plainly see 
how much better it is to have writing-books with copy- 



PROGRAMME OF RECITATION. 77 

plate copies. Most of the trouble in getting these books 
adopted and used in the schools, will be with the par- 
ents. The teachers must labor with the parents in thia 
respect, as well as in many others. 

If the pupils have uot copy-plate copy-books, or if 
the teacher prefers writing copies, he ought so to ar- 
range the time for writing them, that the pupils will 
not constantly be calling upon him in school hours and 
at intermission to write copies. I would have a regu- 
lar time, sometime during the day, for this purpose, 
end would require the pupils to place their writing 
books on my table ready for copies at that time. When 
I was teaching where T had no copy-plate books, I al- 
ways set apart part of the morning recess for writing 
copies, and required my pupils to bring their books up, 
either before school in the morning, or at recess while 
I was writing. T only spoke about it two or three 
times at the first of the term, but T refused to write 
copies in any books which were not brought to me at 
the proper time. So my pupils soon learned that they 
would not get copies unless they brought their books 
at the proper time. Then, if any were without copies, 



78 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



when the time to write came, I would have them write 
upon their slates or on the black-board, or require 
them to stay in at noon or recess to do their writing. 
This effectually cures the pupils of their negligence in 
bringing up their books. 

The Third Reader class ought to have one grade of 
copy-books ; the Fourth another, a grade higher than 
the Third ; and the Fifth or Sixth, as the case may be, 
another of a still higher grade. All these classes can, 
however, write at the same time. At every lesson the 
whole of each class ought to be upon the same stroke 
or principle, or be writing the same copy. That is, 
the teacher ought not to allow one to be writing in one 
place in his copy-book, another in another place, and 
others still in other places, but he ought to keep them 
all together. If a pupil is out of school a day or two, 
he ought not to begin where he left off, but ought to 
turn over in his book to the place where the rest of his 
class are writing. What he has missed he can write 
up at home or at some other time. I believe I would 
limit the number of lines that each pupil is to write 
each day to about ten, and would have each one take 



PROGRAMME OP RECITATION. 79 

up the whole time allotted to writing, in writing those 
ten lines. If the teacher does not, some will run hur- 
riedly through their ten lines and will then have noth- 
ing to do. 

I have heard many teachers say that they have more 
trouble to make this exercise successful, than any other 
one on the whole schedule. I would allow no one to 
do anything else than write during the time set apart 
for writing. If any pupil has no copy-book, or has 
left it at home, or misplaced it, either intentionally or 
otherwise, I would make him write upon the black- 
board or upon his slate. 

I will remark here, to those who expect to rear- 
range the programme, that writing ought not to come 
just after an intermission, because the pupils will then 
have been playing, running or otherwise exercising, so 
that they are nervous and their hands are not so steady 
as they are after they have been sitting awhile, conse- 
quently they cannot write as well immediately after be- 
ing called in from play. 

The last thing before noon is spelling. I would only 
have two classes ; the first consisting of those in the 



80 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Second and Third Readers, and the second consisting 
of those above the Third Reader. 

In the afternoon the programme is pursued as laid 
down for the forenoon, until we come to Geography, to 
which we have assigned a half hour. I have acted on 
the supposition that there will be but two classes in 
this branch of study. There should be no more, and 
if there are the teacher should, if at all possible, merge 
them into two. When drawing maps the teacher can 
put the two classes together and thus obtain the whole 
half hour for a map drawing exercise. This should be 
done perhaps once a week. Even if both classes are 
not drawing the same map, the teacher can direct his 
instructions to one class for a short time, and then to 
the other, thus passing from one to the other, perhaps 
half a dozen times during the half hour. 

After Geography conies Mental Arithmetic. I will 
here say that I teach a great deal of mental arithmetic 
during the time the Written Arithmetic class is recit- 
ing. Now we are again to recess, after which the 
Chart Class recites and is sent home, as I explained in 
my remarks on the programme for the forenoon. 



PROGRAMME OF RECITATION. 81 

Now we come to Arithmetic. I have made arrange- 
ments for two recitations for this class. If I could not 
classify them exactly, I would have the pupils recite 
in two divisions, classifying them as well as I could ac- 
cording to their grade of advancement. I would hear 
one division in the first half of the time assigned, the 
other, in the last half This mode of reciting will be 
very likely to bring together pupils of somewhat dilFer- 
ent capacities and attainments in the study. I myself 
have tried this plan, and find that these pupils of differ- 
ent grades can be heard at the same time without much 
difiiculty. If the teacher does not adopt this plan, but 
classifies all according to their attainments, he cannot 
classify them without making too many classes for the 
time he has. I would all the time work to get as many 
pupils together as possible in these classes. If there ia 
not room enough on the black-boards, some of the pu- 
pils of the class can work the problems which have 
been assigned to them upon their slates, and read the 
explanation from them. 

After Arithmetic comes Spelling again, about which 
it is unnecessary to say anything more than that if the 



82 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



teacher is much crowded for time, he may omit the 
most advanced class. I may here remark, generally, 
that if the teacher is at any time obliged to omit the 
recitations of any classes, he should always omit those 
of the most advanced classes. For the reason that even 
without recitations they derive more benefit from school 
than the classes composed of the smaller pupils do if 
they recite all their lessons. The older pupils can 
study while the younger ones cannot. It is a mistake 
to think because the pupils are small, and not far ad- 
vanced, that a recitation is not so important. Which 
would learn the most in school if there were no recita- 
tions at all ? The answer to this question will suggest 
to the teacher which pupils need to recite most. 

Unless the teacher, each time, names the particular 
class which he calls out, there will be many mistake^ 
by the pupils. Some will rise up, and sometimes even 
come out part of the way to the recitation, when it ia 
the time for some other class. This always causes con- 
fusion and annoyance. This, I may say, will almost 
constantly be the case unless the programme is arranged 
with reference to some principle which the pupils can 



PROGRAMME OF RECITATION. 63 



readily understand and easily remember when their 
iime comes to recite. It will be seen that the pro- 
gramme which I have given you, is arranged so that 
the smaller pupils who are the ones that are the most 
likely to forget when the time comes for them to recite, 
will always recite immediately after school is called to 
order. They will, by this arrangement, soon learn to 
know that theirs is always the first class to recite after 
each intermission. The class which comes next is also 
generally of pupils comparatively small, but they will 
readily remember that they come second after each in- 
termission, and so on up to the higher grade of classes. 
The classes of the more advanced pupils, consisting of 
those who have attended school longer, who can 
remember better and who are not so likely to make 
mistakes by coming out to the recitation at the wrong 
time, are arranged after all the classes of the smaller 
pupils have recited. I may here remark, that the pro- 
gramme is not arranged especially for this purpose, but 
it answers very well. 

I might here say much more on the important mat- 
ters connected with the programme, but you will re- 



84 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



member that I said in my first lecture, that it wa»s not 
my intention, in the least, to give you any thoughts on 
any matters not connected with government. I am, in 
this lecture, merely treating of the proper arrangement 
of the programme as a means of properly disciplining 
the school and of regulating it so as to prevent many of 
those things which will give the teacher trouble if he 
has not reduced everything to system so far as it can be. 



LECTURE VII. 



HINDRANCES TO CLASSIFICATION. 

In my last lecture I entered into quite an extended 
discussion of the programme which I marked out in a 
preceding lecture, and which still remains here upon 
the black-board. In my talk this morning, I propose 
to make a few remarks on subjects more or less connect- 
ed with the programme. 

It will be seen that I have assumed that there are 
no other branches to be taught than those usually de- 
nominated the common branches, to-wit : Reading, 
Writing, Geography, (xrammar. Arithmetic, and Or- 
thography or Spelling. I think that higher branches 
ought not to be taught in our common schools. If, 
however, they are to be taught, the teacher should hear 
the recitation of the classes in the higher branches be- 
fore school begins in the morning, or at noon or after 



86 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



school dismisses in the evening. If he does not so hear 
them, the only way left is to take the time from some 
or all his other classes. 

I have taken it for granted too, that there is only 
one set of text books used in each branch. Yet we 
very frequently find two sets of readers, or two differ- 
ent authors on Geography, or two or more different 
kinds of books on other subjects to be taught in the 
school. This should not be as it so frequently is. It 
deprives the teacher of half the time allowed to each 
class, in the branch in which there are two sets of books. 
Then, too, there is not the least benefit in the world to- 
be derived from it. The only excuse, imaginable, for 
using an extra series of books, is that the people have 
the books and cannot afford to discard them and buy 
others. To those who are really very poor, this may 
at first view, seem to be an objection. Yet, I will as- 
sert, that even they will save money and time, by buy- 
ing the regular text books. For, suppose, that there 
are two Second Readers, say McGuffey's and Willson'a^ 
used in the school, the teacher must devote as much 
time to the one as he does to the other ; as a conse- 



HINDRANCES TO CLASSIFICATION. 87 



quence, he can devote only half as much to each class. 
He must hear the class recite in McGufFey and also 
the one in Willson. Now if he can merge these two 
classes, thus made necessary, into one, each pupil will 
receive twice the amount of time and double the ben- 
efit from the teacher's instruction. In fact, he would 
receive more, as there is always time lest in changing 
classes to and from the recitation. 

Thus, I think in four weeks, the price of any book 
used in our common schools, will be gained in the in- 
creased amount of instruction these pupils will receive. 
I firmly believe that in a whole term much more will 
be gained by each pupil who has to buy a new book, 
than all the books usually used in a term of common 
school will cost him. The pupil is saving time and 
gaining knowledge faster, and his mind is more rapidly 
disciplined. Now time is money, and knowledge is 
power. With the poor this is quite an item, as time 
is their only wealth and an education is the only legacy 
they can leave to their children It is the best inheri- 
tance, even to the rich. 

I wish I could here address the parents of all child- 



88 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

ren who are sent to school with an odd series of text 
books. I would say to them, Parents, Time and money 
will be saved for you by procuring the proper text 
books for your children. Besides by forcing others 
upon your schools, regularity and system are sacrificed. 
The efficiency and success of the school are often there- 
by impaired, the teacher is unnecessarily worried, and 
often disheartened and sometimes, in fact, even broken 
down by this worse than a double burden. 

I have, sometimes, heartily wished that every parent 
who entails thi.^ unnecessary labor upon the teacher 
could be compelled to take his place a few days, bear 
his burdens, endure his toils, and repeat his tasks. I 
think that, at the end of a week, he would gladly re- 
lieve the teacher, not only by buying the required 
books, but in many other ways in which parents now, 
unintentionally place hindrances upon the school. 

Again, the laws of almost every State, make provi- 
sion that a series of text books shall be adopted and 
used to the exclusion of all others. I must here say 
that I think it mainly the fault of the teachers them- 
selves, that more than one set of text books is used. 



J[INI)RAN(^ES TO (JLASSIFICATION. 89 



Teachers should, all the time, endeavor to get rid of all 
superfluous books. They should not, when a pupil 
comes to school with an unauthorized book, whine a 
little about it and then assign a lesson in it ; but 
should assign the pupil a lesson in the proper book 
and tell him to get it. The teacher must also work 
with the parents and with the school authorities. 

Teachers, you have the law and reason on your side. 
If you cannot get rid of this great inconvenience by 
kindness and mild means. I would counsel you to 
adopt the rigid means of hearing only the classes in 
the books approved and adopted by the lawful author- 
ities. This may seem harsh and unforbidding, but it 
is better, both for you and the school, than to linger 
along limpingly, as you must with twice as many classes 
as are necessary. 

I would like to present other arguments on this sub- 
ject, but other things of more immediate, if not of 
greater importance to the teacher, demand our present 
time and attention. 

Very often the teacher is puzzled what to do when 
pupils bring books to school which they are not far 



90 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



enough advanced to study. For very often those who 
should be in the Second or Third Reader bring the 
Fourth or Fifth and want to read in them. It is so 
with Geography and other studies. The best and most 
effectual plan that the teacher can pursue in this case, 
is to permit the pupil to remain in the class until he 
has fully demonstrated, as far as it is possible to do to 
the pupil's mind, by a rigid system of recitations, that 
he is not able to pursue his studies in the book which 
he has. Another plan is not to hear the pupil recite 
until he gets the proper book. In a school to which 
the teacher is a stranger, it will take a few days to 
learn the ability of the pupils to pursue these studies 
in the books they have brought. This trouble is caused 
by many parents being ambitious to have their child- 
ren advanced too rapidly, and are on that account 
easily induced to buy advanced books for their child- 
ren. But these parents are not so difficult to get along 
with as those who never want to get the proper books 
for their children. They, in a manner, want their 
children to commit every book, before they get another. 
They only want them to study one or two branches 



HINDRANCES TO CLASSIFICATION. 91 



and do not want to get books to enable them to enter 
classes for which they are abundantly qualified. 

Some one may ask, "How can we follow the pro- 
gramme?" I wnll answer. Have a clock and keep 
strictly to the time. When the time allotted to a class 
is up. dismiss it from the recitation whether half or 
only a fourth of the lesson assigned has been recited. 
I will now dismiss this matter by saying that I will 
say something more on this subject if time and the 
committee permit, 

I will now devote myself, for a short while, to a sub- 
ject which may seem only very slighly connected with 
the subject of this lecture. I think, however, that 
there is no impropriety in bringing it in here. 

The greatest draw^back to classification and conse- 
quently to the proper arrangement of the programme 
in our common schools, is the change of one teacher 
for another every three or six months, or at fur- 
thest, every year. It is agreed by the best educators 
that almost every teacher must have a month and some- 
time as much as two, to get thoroughly acquainted 
with his pupils and the wants of the school. 



92 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

One teacher will advance them in Grammar far be- 
yond where they ought to be in connection with their 
other studies, another will advance them in (jreography 
and still another in Arithmetic. This uneven advance- 
ment of some branches to the neglect of others, destroys 
every possibility of classification. Each teacher rides 
his particular hobby to the detriment of the school. 
Now if the same teacher taught right along for years 
he would be compelled, by the necessity of the case, to 
bring up all branches of study together. If a teacher 
knew that he would be retained in the same place sev- 
eral years, he would very likely be more careful to de- 
vote the proper time and attention t(j all the branches 
and not give the pupils (as we might say) a lop-sided 
education, that is, advancing them in one or two 
branches to the neglect of others. Besides, there 
would be this additional advantage, that there would 
be more professional teachers and not so many inter- 
lopers who have failed inother professions, who only 
intend to teach a few terms until they can retrieve 
their reverses. 

It is a fact that this tendency of changing teachers 



IliNDKANOKS TO OI.ASSIFK^ATION. 93 



evei'v term or two is to drive them into other kinds of 
business which do not depend on the whim of one or 
two or at least a set of men. Again, about the time 
that one teacher gets things to moving properly another 
steps in, adopts different plans, and in reality spoils 
nearly all his predecessors work, or renders it fruitless. 
So long as such frequent changes are made, no progress 
can be made in classification. One teacher will undo 
what others have done. If any progress has been made 
by one, its effects and benefits are destroyed by his 
successor. 

I would like to say more here but I must desist. I 
think, however, that the best thing school officers can 
do is to keep their teachers as long as they can, al- 
though they may not have been entirely satisfactory in 
every respect. They can do much better than new 
teachers, besides there is no risk to run of getting a 
worse one. 

It ought to be considered, too, that the longer a 
teacher teaches at one place, the better he can do. 
When a new teacher comes into a place he must go 
over all that his predecessor did to learn the classes, 



94 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT, 



their grade of advancement, tlic pupils' dispositions and 
a thousand other things which cannot now be thought 
of. Whereas a teacher who has taught in the school 
goes into the school room the first day of a term or at 
the first of the year and knows just what to do, just 
what each pupil ought to study, just what classes he 
will have and how to arrange them. In fact, he knows 
all about the school. 

He is, if he remains where he has taught, running 
no risk of being a failure. Whereas, if he goes to an- 
other district to teach he may fail in government, and 
thereby ruin his reputation as a teacher and acquire a 
dislike for the profession for which he has prepared 
himself, very likely by years of study and hundreds of 
dollars of expense. For you know that a teacher may 
be eminently successful in one place and may entirely 
fiiil in another ; and a teacher may fail in one place 
and be successful in another. Likewise a teacher may 
be successful in the most difficult school if he has the 
recjuisite experience, whereas, if he changes from one 
place to another he may be engaged at a place for 
which he has not the requisite experience at one time, 



HINDRANCES TO CLASSIFICATION. 95 

for which he will be eminently qualified in a year or 
two. Therefore, I argue, that teachers ought to stay 
where they have been teaching provided they have at- 
tained any success whatever. 

I have here spoken of this subject and of the arrange- 
ment of the programme, merely as a means of disciplin- 
ing and managing the school. In my next lecture, I 
will more fully treat of system as a means of ruling the 
school. Here I have only touched upon the pro- 
gramme as a means of reducing the amount of labor 
and of removing many annoyances. 



LKCTVRE Yin. 



SYSTEM. 

You remember that m my first lecture I said that it 
is better for botli pupils and teacher that wrong doing 
in school be prevented by judicious management rather 
than by the infliction of punishment. In my previous 
lectures I have been endeavoring to give you several 
modes of preventing school vices by the arrangements 
which every teacher can make. I propose to-day to 
treat of system as a means of disciplining a school. 

Order in school is necessar}'. The first requisite to 
good order is system. In fact order and system mean 
nearly the same thing in many of their applications. 
The teacher should, as far as possible, reduce every 
thing to system. He should have system in recitations, 
system in conduct, system in intermission, system in 
everything. Any teacher will find any school much 
easier to control by having everything done systematic- 



SYSTEM. 97 



ally. Not so many difficulties will arise if he reduce 
everything to system. 

Every difficulty small or great requires a certaiu 
amount of executive ability, — a thing very rare among 
young persons just beginning to teach. Then for them 
the necessity for systematic work is doubly necessary. 
Moreover, where there is system a teacher will know 
much better what to do in any given emergency. In 
fact the first requisite to a good disciplinarian is the 
power of reducing everything to system. Everything. 
in and about the school room should have the precision 
and regularity of clockwork. No teacher can succeed 
well who has a hap-hazard way of doing his work. 
Then I would say to every teacher have everything re- 
duced to system ; have everything arranged in order as 
far as it is possible to do so, before you enter the school 
room on the first day of your first term of school. If 
you have done this properly you will only need to put 
your school into operation as a mechanic puts a ma- 
chine into motion after he has it thoroughly fitted up,. 
put together, and lubricated. But if you go into the 
school room without any plan beforehand j^ou will find 



98 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



that there will arise a thousand troublesome points upon 
which you must render a decision, some on one subject 
and others on other subjects all more or less difficult to 
decide. 

Live up to your programme as nearly as you can. 
Sometimes you may have a whole class absent. I 
would not then, in order to take up the time, sacrifice 
system by hearing other classes longer or by calling 
them sooner than the time for them indicated on the 
schedule, but I would let the pupils devote their time 
to study. During this time T would myself go around 
among the pupils and aid them individually ; see what 
their difficulties are ; and where they are studying ; leave 
a suggestion here, and make a correction there ; and 
answer any <(uestions which pupils may then see proper 
to ask. 

The teacher ought to carry out Ins programme in all 
its parts every day. For if he sacrifices system and fails 
to carry it out one day, his pupils may think that he 
will not carry it out next day. For instance, one day 
the teacher tells his pupils that they will not recite 
that day or that they will recite at a difterent time, 



SYSTE.M. 99 



this gives the uienibers of the class reason to think 
that lie may not hear them next day or some other 
day. As a consequence, they will not prepare their 
lessons because it is the nature of most pupils in our 
common schools not to study their lessons unless they 
expect to recite them. Kven the ie^x who will study 
their lessons will not get them so carefully as if they 
expected to be called upon to recite them, or they will 
put oft' studying as long as they can, thinking the class 
may not be called upon to recite next day. but will 
again be excused or the recitation postponed. 

Again should a teacher one day give recess five min- 
utes sooner than the time on the schedule or five min- 
utes longer it will lead his pupils to hope that he may 
do so again, and when the clock comes to within five 
minutes of the time for recess the pupils will begin to 
want recess and will become restless. All this can be 
avoided by a rigid adherence to the programme. 

What I have said in reference to varying from the 
programme once, applies Avith more than redoubled force 
if there are tAvo or more variations in the same respect. 
For pupils will then begin to expect them now and then. 



1 00 sen GO L GO V EK N M ENT. 

If there is never a variation in the way anything is 
done in school or in anything connected with school, 
the pupils will never expect a variation. No one ex- 
pects any one to a€t diiferently from his accustomed 
mode of acting. Consequently, if the teacher does not 
for a long time, dejtart from his rules or his programme, 
his pupils will not expect a departure but will think 
that every thing will continue to be done as it has all 
along been done. Moreover, the longer the time from 
one variation or departure to another, the less will the 
pupils expect them ; but if they occur often the pupils 
will thereby be lead to think that they niay often ex- 
pect them. 

I may here remai'k that if the teacher at any time 
loses his respect for system or becomes slack in any 
duty, the pupils will very naturally think that he will 
become so in others and do little things for the purpose 
of finding out whether he is becoming regardless of his 
former strictness. In fact as there are always some pu- 
pils who are very restless under any resti-aint whatever 
and are always ready to burst the bands of their re- 
straints ; they will, if not prevented, soon reduce order 



SYSTEM. 101 



to chaos, system to confusion, and the school to a spe- 
cies of earthly pandemonium. 

Many pupils invent every plan conceivable, to get 
out of studying their lessons. Let a teacher suspend 
his efforts to preserve order in his school a few days or 
let him become irregular in the discharge of any of his 
duties, he will see tlie effects of it for weeks afterwards. 

If the teacher has been derelict in observing the 
programme, the pupils will say, -I did not know we 
were going to recite,' or that 'I did not know when we 
were going to recite and have not got my lesson yet,' 
or 'as we did not recite yesterday, I did not know what 
the lesson was for to-day.' or that 'I got the wrong les- 
son.' All this is caused by the teacher's non-observa- 
tion of system in carrying out his programme. 

As it is with the programme so it is with any other 
duties enjoined by the nature of school. If the teach- 
er gives any pretext whatever he may be ver}- sure that 
some of the pupils of this disposition will take advant- 
age of it. 

liegularity and system are the best handmaids to 
which the teacher can wed himself But thev cannot 



102 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

be secured without pei-severance, industry and enei-gy. 
The teacher will find in hi.s efforts to obtain regularity 
and system that he will have thousands of irregulari- 
ties to correct. It seems too, that some pupils are all 
the time unconsciously acting to counteract every ef- 
fort of the teacher. 

I would always require my pupils to do what is prop- 
erly before them, thus observing system in requiring 
my pupils to be systematic. Thus as I have before 
said, I would not let them write when they ought to 
be studying their reading lessons, nor would I permit 
them to be studying their reading lessons while they 
ought to be getting their arithmetic lessons. 

The programme is so arranged that there will be suf- 
ficient time for every one who is properly classified to 
study his lessons just before reciting them. I would 
not permit any irregularity, however small, to pass 
without calling the pupils' attention to it. If mischiev- 
ious pupils learn that they can play little tricks, and 
in this way spoil the harmony of the teacher's plans, 
you may be sure that they will do so. Besides, if 
things are done in one way one day, and in another 



SYSTEM. 103 



way next day, the pupils' minds will be cwifused and 
they will not know what to do or they will not know 
how to do anything that is ie({uired of them. For in- 
stance, a teacher calls out a class one way to-day and 
another way to-morrow, and another next day, the pu- 
pils will at no time understand what is wanted. So it 
is with all other things done in the school room. If 
things are not done systematically the pupils have no 
plan, no chart, nothing by which they can steer their 
course in their work or by which they can regulate 
their conduct. 

The teacher can also do much to teach his pupils to 
observe order and system by teaching them order and 
system in their games, and in their play upon the play- 
ground. For this purpose he can by example, if not 
otherwise, teach them to put away their play things, 
such as balls, bats and so forth, into some place pre- 
pared or appropriated for that purpose, and not let 
them lie around here and there over the whole play- 
ground. He ought, however, to be very careful not to 
seem to dictate or interfere in mere matters of play 
during recess or at noon. 



104 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT, 



I liave all along in this lecture been speaking of one 
of the requisites of a good teacher. I will now turn 
my thoughts to all the requisites which combine to 
make a good teacher in the sense in which I am treat- 
ing of this subject. 

Executive ability is a phrase which embraces all the 
qualities of 0)ie who is a successful governor of human 
•beings. T once heard a leading educator remark that 
a person who can govern an ordinary common school 
of forty pupils can easily rule a State. He meant by 
this remark that it requires as much executive ability, 
or as it is sometimes called, administrative ability to 
control a common school, as it docs to govern a State. 
He was not much mistaken either, because it requires 
this kind of ability of a high order to manage a school 
successfully. You can all congratulate yourselves that 
you have talents of the very highest order if you con- 
trol your schools well. 

We frequently see persons who are in every other 
way qualified to become the very best teachers utterly 
fail, because they cannot govern ; because they cannot 
preserve order. Many excellent young men and 



SYSTEM. 105 



women, of high scholastic attainments, have been driv- 
en out of the profession because they have failed to 
discipline well their first few terms of school, or they 
have themselves left the profession in disgust, because 
they believed themselves not among those who were 
"born to rule." 

How often do we hear it said of a teacher, "He is a 
good scholar but a very poor teacher !" Again we fre- 
quently hear it said, "He is a good instructor but a 
poor disciplinarian." It is necessary to have good order 
in the school room. For the pupils cannot study, nor 
can the teacher impart instruction where there is dis- 
order or confiision. Every teacher then should have 
sufficient executive ability to hold in check the dis- 
turbing elements about him, or his school will do but 
little good. He may seem to succeed for awhile by 
adopting cunning expedients but these will sooner or 
later lose their influence. Besides other things I here 
refer to rewards and credit marks. No teacher can 
permanently succeed without executive ability. I be- 
lieve that all men have this ability, though some may 
have it in a greater degree than others, I believe too 



106 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

that the power to control men can be greatly developed 
by proper cultivation. But it must be done by culti- 
vating those qualities of character which are in a high 
degree necessary for a teacher, namely, vigilance, per- 
severance, energy, discretion and firmness. 

It may be asked, "in what does executive or adminis- 
trative ability consist?" This question is much more 
easily asked than answered. It may, however, be 
curtly answered that it consists in doing the right 
thing in the right manner, and at the right time. Now 
if the teacher can, in any emergency, determine just 
exactly what ought to be done, when and how to do it, 
he will, in my opinion, have executive ability of the 
highest order. 

One prominent element of executive ability is deci- 
sion of character. The teacher must have the inward 
power to say '-NO " He must have the moral courage to 
do what he thinks is right. I will here say that those 
persons who cannot summon up sufficient moral power 
to prevent a thing which they know to be wrong, or to 
enforce a thing which they know to be right will never 
become successful disciplinarians in our schools. When 



SYSTEM. 107 



a teacher thinks a thing ought not to be done he ought 
to have the courage to say so ; and when he thinks a 
thing ought to be done he ought to have the courage 
to do it without fear or favor. 

Many teachers frequently know what is going wrong 
in their schools but they lack the hack bone to make 
it right. Let me here say that this class of teach- 
ers is much more hopeful than those who cannot see 
what is going wrong with their schools. Often teach- 
ers are afraid of offending their pupils or their pupils' 
parents by refusing to grant some request which the 
pupils ask. When a teacher is asked by a pupil for 
permission to do something which the teacher thinks 
the pupil ought not to do, he ought to have the courage 
to refuse, and that emphatically if necessary. 

The more favors you grant to pupils the more they 
will ask. Granting their requests once will encourage 
them to ask again. If you comply with their requests 
in one thing, it will not be long till they will want 
favors in something else, and so on until their requests 
will be endless. Now, though I like to please my pu- 
pils by doing anything that I think is proper, I here 



108 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

am trying to urge that teachers should refuse, what 
their judgments tell them is not proper or prudent, and 
also that if there is any doubt it is better to lean to- 
wards a refusal. Moreover, after having granted favors 
to your pupils a few times, they will then be much 
more offended when you refuse them than if you had 
refused to grant the first they asked. Besides, there 
are some who will not scruple to ask anything if the 
teacher complies with their requests a few times and 
thus encourages them. 

Pupils sometimes do a favor for a teacher in order 
thereby to gain his good will merely for the purpose of 
afterwards asking some favor which they had in view 
but feared the teacher would refuse. Of course they 
would not do so if they thought the teacher would 
grant their re(|uests without. They 'also know their 
teacher, and are almost sure that they will gain their 
ends: because tliey are fully aware that he will 
dislike to refuse anything they may wish after they 
have done him a favor. The teacher should show by 
his manner that he receives every gift and every favor 
very thankfully and gratefully, but should not allow 



SYSTEM. 109 



any thing whatever to cause him to swerve a single 
iota from what he considers his duty. It may some- 
times be rather difficult for a teacher to refuse to grant 
the request of a pupil who, in addition to having done 
some act of great kindness to the teacher, approaches 
him, it may be, very politely and smilingly ; but it 
must be done. If the teacher wants to maintain his 
authority in full force, he must refuse everything which 
the pupils may want, but which he thinks ought not 
to be granted. He must have sufficient nerve, suffi- 
cient stamina, sufficient steadfastness of purpose to resist 
all winning smiles, bland approaches and courteously 
asked questions. 

3Iany teachers are very apt in devising plans but 
lack the executive ability to carry them out. They 
know what ought to be done, but they either lack the 
courage or do not know how to do it. Those who lack 
the moral stamina but know how to carry out their 
plans, will in time make much better teachers than 
those who do not know how to do what ought to be done. 
The former will soon learn by experience that it is 
much better to brave public opinion than to pamper it. 



110 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

The very men whom you suppose will be most offend- 
ed at your actions toward their children, though they 
may at times be very angry at you, will inwardly re- 
spect you, because you have taken a manly stand. 
Even while talking to you they will respect you more, 
if you firmly maintain any position you may think 
right, than if you cowardly cringe to their opinions. 

I will close this lecture by a summing up of what I 
have said in a few plain, practical remarks. A teacher 
should always do what he thinks is right. This will 
sometimes be very hard to do. ( )ften the teacher may 
know what is best, and of course what is best is right, 
but he hates to do it for fear of some immediate dislike 
of the pupils or the pupils' parents, or even of the peo- 
ple of the district. But if the teacher does what is 
right he will gain in the end. Though the pupils or 
their parents and friends may temporarily dislike him 
they will afterwards respect him more because he 
has done what he believes to be right. 

Even if he does not gain the respect and esteem of 
the people, he himself will have the inward conscious- 
ness that he has done what is right, and will be able to 



SYSTEM. Ill 



meet every one without any oftliat guilty, self- condem- 
ning feeling which will manifest itself when he meets 
any one who has been concerned in the affairs about 
which there was any controversy, if he has at any time 
done things which he knows he ought not to have done, 
or if he has not done what he knows he ought to have 
done and which he would have done but for fear of an 
outburst of ill feeling in the community in which he is 
teaching. 

There is no one who does not at times make mistakes. 
Teachers are no exception to the rule. If a teacher 
makes a mistake he should be willing to correct it. He 
should tell any one concerned that he will be pleased 
at any time to make any corrections if any one can con- 
vince him that he has done wrong, but so long as he 
remains unconvinced that he is wrong, he must believe 
that he is right. 

Do not do anything of which you will afterwards 
feel ashamed. Never leave anything undone which you 
will be ashamed of not having done. A teacher feels 
well after having done a good action. Further, after 
having done something which he has long felt he ought 



112 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

to do, but which he has dreaded, he will feel much 
better ; he will feel relieved of a burden. That is he 
will feel better satisfied with himself, and this is an 
agreeable feeling. You will find that you must often 
do what you would rather not do. You must consult 
your judgment and not your feelings as to what you 
should do in any matter whatever. 



LECTURE IX. 



RULES. 

I wish you to keep steadily in view the fact that it 
is the teacher's best policy to prevent all disorder and 
mischief before their inception, rather than to allow 
them and then punish the offenders in order to prevent 
others. I think one of the best ways of doing this i» 
by having everything done as systematically as it can 
be. To-day I shall talk upon a subject very intimate- 
ly connected with system, and that subject is the. 
Rules of School. 

You need not expect me to lay down for you a set 
of rules as I did a programme. It cannot be done. A 
system of rules that would be good for one school would 
be wholly inapplicable to another ; and a system that 
would be proper for one season of the year would not 
at all suit for another. So also a set of rules that is- 



114 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

applicable to one class of pupils would not be applica- 
ble to another. 

Some object to rules in school ; they say they do not 
want any; they are not necessary, and that they do 
more harm than good. I must say that there are some 
directions necessary to guide the pupils in their con- 
duct. It makes no difference what you call these di- 
Tections, they are nothing more nor less than rules for 
the guidance of the teacher and the pupils. You may 
•call them directions, checks, regulations, commands, or 
anything else you please ; they are still rules. No 
school can get along without them. 

The very idea of school implies some such commands 
as that the pupils must get their lessons, and that they 
must behave well enough to do so, and that they must 
obey the teacher. Indeed when the teacher assigns a 
lesson he impliedly lays down a rule that the pupils 
•shall get that lesson. If the pupils get the lesson they 
"Comply with the implied command of the teacher ; if 
they do not they break the rule that he has made. If 
the true teacher expects that the lessons which he as- 
signs to his pupils will not be gotten he would better 



Rl LES. 115 



not assign them. For it is better that the teacher give 
no opportunity to the pupils to break the rules. By 
the mere fact of his giving out a lesson to be studied 
he makes the tacit request that it shall be studied. 

Therefore that the pupils must study is then a rule 
and it is a primary rule of every school, whether it is 
enforced or not. You may call it a rule or whatever 
you please it is nevertheless a requirement by which 
the pupils are governed in their conduct in school. In 
fact that the pupils must study is the end, the aim, the 
purpose, the design of school. 

The next requirement naturally flows from this, and 
is that the pupils must so conduct themselves that they 
ca7l study. Indeed this latter rule is only a branch of 
the former, and all other rules necessary for a school 
are only branches of these two. These are the funda- 
mental rules, though they are administered in diiferent 
ways by different teachers. Yet in all their ramifica- 
tions and different applications they are no less rules 
because teachers generally do not call them by that 
name. Do right is a higher command than the teach- 
er makes, yet it is the law upon which all other laws 
depend for authority. 



116 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

At the beginning of a term of school I would lay 
down very few rules. I would as I have already re- 
commended, (when speaking of the teacher's first day of 
school,) on the first day tell them that the' only 
rule I would make is, that they should do right. Then 
as rules were required I would introduce them. I 
would never make a rule until I saw it was needed. 
Whenever I saw a pupil doing anything that ought not 
to be done, I would call him to order and tell him that 
such an act as he has been doing cannot be allowed. 
For instance, if a pupil gets out of his seat without 
permission, before anything has been said by the teach- 
er about obtaining permission for that purpose, I would 
forthwith tell him to take his seat and that he must 
not leave his seat without permission from the teacher. 
This would then be a precedent for him, and not only 
for him but for every other pupil in the room who had 
noticed that the teacher had recjuired the pupil to take 
his seat and recjuired him to ask for permission. 

You may be sure too, that the pupils the first few 
days are wide awake for all such checks upon their 
conduct. Not more than two or three pupils need 



RULEvS. 117 



their attention thus called to being out of their seats 
until all the pupils of the school will know that the 
teacher will not allow it and will conduct themselves 
accordingly. It is in fact a rule and the pupils know 
that the teacher will be guided by it, and will them- 
selves act accordingly. 

By promulgating too many rules at once the minds 
of the pupils will be confused, and they will forget some 
of them. Whereas, if a rule is not made until it is 
needed the minds of the pupils will be alive and open to 
the reception of it. When anything takes place to 
which the attention of the pupils is drawn, they will 
remember a rule made to forbid it, to curb it, or to re- 
strain it. much better than if the rule is merely made 
to meet the contingency that it may take place. 

Grive your pupils to understand that you mean ex- 
actly what you say. Whenever you make a regulation 
or rule for the government of the school, or the arrange- 
ment of classes, or for any purpose whatever, carry that 
out to the letter. Your pupils will soon learn to con- 
form to that state of aftairs and will know that every- 
thing must be exactly as the teacher wants it to be. 



118 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



You need not be harsh and despotic in enforcing any 
rule unless there is a rebellious disposition on the part 
of the pupils. All that you want your pupils to know 
is that they must do as you tell them to do. 

I believe that it would be a politic measure for the 
teacher to tell his pupils that if they conducted them- 
selves as they should in respect to any matter, he would 
make no rules in regard to it. 

I think it would be well for a teacher, when he sees 
the necessity for a rule in reference to any matter, first 
to request his puptls to do as he wished them. Then 
if they do not comply with his request, he can lay 
down a positive rule. I think however, that a teacher 
who has his pupils well trained will rarely need to do 
more than merely to request his pupils to do anything 
he wishes. They knowing his mode of proceeding in 
this respect will rather comply with his wishes than 
wait till he commands. 

There remains also another fact to be considered 
here, which is that pupils often do things thoughtlessly, 
and will desist at a mere word from the teacher. In 
many cases I know that it will be the better plan kind- 



RULES. 11^ 



ly to ask what lie wants as a favor from the pupils. 
For example, pupils are in the habit of banging the 
the door when they enter or leave the room, or care- 
lessly throw their books and slates down upon the desks 
with a slam. >In cases of this kind my advice would 
be to the teacher first to request the pupils politely not 
to make those noises. Afterwards, if they persisted I 
would lay it down as a positive rule that they should 
not do so, and tell them that those who now violated 
would be properly dealt with. 

Just as the law of nations is a system handed down 
from generation to generation, made at diiFerent times 
as occasion demanded, so the rules of school may be re- 
garded as a system of unwritten law made from time ta 
time. As in the law, every case which calls for a deci- 
sion, is when decided, a precedent for all others of the 
same or a similar kind ; so in the school room every in- 
cident which calls forth the decision of the teacher 
may be taken as a rule applying to every other case of 
a like nature which may happen. Therefore the teach- 
er ought not to change the rules of his school every 
few days or for every whimsical purpose. For when 



120 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

pupils once get used to a system of rules and regula- 
tions, it is somewhat difficult for them to get used to 
another. At the beginning of a term of school where 
a new teacher is teaching, the pupils expect new rules, 
and therefore on the lookout for them, but after the 
term has been going on sometime, they become settled 
in the system. 

The teacher's rules and the decisions in pursuance 
thereof should be uniform and harmonious. He ought 
to take into consideration that his school is a little 
commonwealth of which he is the governor. A State 
oannot, without a revolution, change the system of laws 
and the adjudications thereon by which they have been 
ruled and guided for generations. Even revolutions 
<3annot efface the effects of the old laws, but they will 
remain as customs for ages. So in a great degree it is 
with a school, after it has been going along in a certain 
"Way several months. The pupils will continue to act 
as they have been acting. They have become accus- 
tomed to the manner in which they have been con- 
ducting themselves and it is hard for them to change. 
Moreover it is very difficult to change from one manner 
of doing any thing to an entirely different one. 



RULES. 121 



A school is much easier changed from good to bad 
than from bad to good. If one rule becomes a dead 
letter, others are fairly on the way to become so too. 
For if pupils find that they can in any way cause the 
teacher to disregard one rule, they will think that they 
can cause him to disregard others. They will say 
among themselves, "We played that rule out and we 
<}an play others out the same way." So I would say, 
maintain every rule in its full force until you see that 
it is not necessary. Then I would tell my pupils why 
I did not enforce it, and also tell them that I hoped 
that I would not need to adopt it again, but that it all 
depended upon themselves whether the rule should 
again be adopted or not. The reasons forgiving my 
reasons for not enforcing a rule longer, are that the 
pupils may see the propriety (so to speak) of repealing 
it. For children and young people are much more 
feasonable creatures than many older folks suppose 
them to be. 

Summing up what has been said in this paragraph it 
.i?rould be in the language of many, "Never cut on a 
rule." A teacher who is very careful about enforcing 



122 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

all his rules, will have very little trouble in enforcing 
any new one which he may see has become necessary. 
For the pupils know that he will enforce it, and will 
immediately submit. But if the teacher has been some- 
what careless in enforcing his laws, he will find trouble 
in applying the new ones he makes. 

We have for a short time been considering rules in 
several of the ways in which they may be considered, 
but will now take another view of the same subject. 
If the teacher does not make his own rules, the pupils 
will make them for him. To illustrate what I mean, 
we will say that the teacher has said nothing about the 
pupils leaving their seats, and that one gets up and 
leaves his seat for some purpose or another. In this 
case the teacher must either make a rule in reference 
to the pupils' leaving their seats, or the pupil will 
make it by the mere act of leaving his seat and not 
having anything said to him about it. But if the 
teacher calls the attention of the pupil to the act, and 
tells him that he does not want any one to leave his 
seat without permission from the teacher, he will have 
established a precedent by which all the pupils will 
thereafter be guided. 



RULES. 123 



The teacher ought, however, to call the attention of 
the whole school to the matter, so that no pupil can 
afterwards say that he did not know that he must get 
permission to leave his seat. On the other hand, if 
the teacher says nothing to the pupil who gets up out 
of his place and leaves it, that pupil and all others who 
see him do so, will think that the teacher does not in- 
tend to require them to get permission. Here again a 
precedent will be established, and this time by a pupil, 
and all the pupils will act upon this precedent just as 
if the teacher had told them that they do not need per- 
mission when they want to leave their places, in the 
class or in the room. 

In the first place, the teacher has made the rule ; in 
the second, the pupil. You can now see the force of 
the statement, that if the teacher does not make his 
rules, the pupils will make them. You can also see an 
illustration of that other statement, that a teacher 
ought not to make a rule until it is needed. What I 
have said about pupils' leaving their seats, applies with 
equal force, to whispering, to leaving the room, going 
to the water bucket, and many other things which 



124 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

every teacher of any experience, and every one who 
has been a pupil in school well knows. 

It seems that pupils are constantly striving to have 
the rules or regulations of school modified ; they do 
not want to be restrained quite so much. They usu- 
ally begin by wanting the teacher to modify some par- 
ticular rule or relax its operation. He may generally 
be sure that if he modifies one rule in accordance with 
their wishes, the pupils will soon want him to modify 
another, and then another until every rule or regula- 
tion would be entirely abrogated, and the teacher 
stripped of every whit of authority. 

I am now only referring to the more aggressive ones 
among the pupils. For there are always some who 
without any questions, observe everything the teacher 
asks them, merely because he asks them to do so. They 
either have so much respect for themselves or for the 
teacher, that they will not infringe upon any right 
which the teacher may have reserved to himself, nor 
break any rule which he has seen fit to lay down. The 
aggressive class will, however, increase in numbers as 
the teacher gives them occasion to think they can ac- 



RULES. 125 



complish anything in the way of having the rules mod- 
ified or entirely abrogated. Only a few pupils may at 
first come to the teacher to have a rule abolished or 
modified. But if he modifies or abolishes that, these 
same pupils, with some others, will soon want some 
other rule treated in the same way. If the teacher 
grants this, other pupils seeing what has been accom- 
plished, will array themselves with the progressive 
class. This will go on until there will be but little 
difference between the minds of the conservative and 
the progressive class of pupils. You know that success 
adds numbers to parties, sects and schisms. Only let 
your most restless pupils, who are uneasy under any 
restraint whatever, attain any success in having you 
modify, or even in themselves avoiding the rules, they 
will be soon joined by others. 

There are some vices against which a teacher need 
make no rules. Among them are fighting, lying, steal- 
ing and others which a teacher's experience will sug- 
gest to him. Every child old enough to go to school 
knows that it is wrong to do such things. So for the 
first oifense the teacher can punish the offender with- 



126 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



out previously having said anything about the commis- 
sion of such wrongs. 

I may here add what every teacher knows, that is if 
the older pupils observe the rules there will be very 
little trouble in getting the younger ones to observe 
them. The younger ones as a general rule will see 
that those who are older than themselves must obey, 
and will think that if those whom the teacher is most 
likely to favor, obey, they will certainly be required to 
do so. Even if the younger ones do break the rules, a 
teacher can show more leniency towards them because 
of their want of discrimination between right and 
wrong. I believe, however, that I have heretofore re- 
marked that children observe more than we give them 
credit for doing ; they observe everything and draw 
conclusions from everything. They see that the rules 
must be observed and obeyed by others, and draw the 
conclusion that they themselves must observe and obey 
them. 

We are all very much influenced by those around us, 
even pupils of the same age will influence each other 
greatly. The example of one docs very much to 



RULES. 127 



influence or restrain others. Often the punishment of 
one for an ofi"ense may be a sufficient example to 
restrain a whole school, for a term or even a year, from 
the commission of that offense. The more rules you 
have the more there will be broken. So it is a mat- 
ter of policy not to have too many rules. 



LECTURE X. 



THE DISPOSITION OF MANY ANNOYANCES. 

I have been speaking of system and rules and how 
they conduce to reduce the amount of trouble, annoy- 
ance, confusion and disorder. I now propose to speak 
to you upon another subject nearly allied to the one we 
have been considering, that is the prevention of dis- 
turbance, annoyance and confusion by reducing the 
necessary affairs of school to a systematic administra- 
tion of them. 

Every one who has ever taught, knows how pupils 
will take advantage of every weakness and every fault 
a teacher may have, and also of every necessity of the 
nature of school or of human natui'e. All teachers of 
experience know that many pupils do so merely be- 
cause they can. 

Groing out or leaving the room is one of the necessi- 



DISPOSITION OF MANY ANNOYANCES. 12^ 

ties of school and of human nature which is very much 
abused by the pupils. It is one of the greatest stand- 
ing annoyances that a teacher must endure. It must 
be curbed as much as prudence will allow, or it will 
become an almost unendurable annoyance. There is 
no necessity for more than about one hundredth part 
of the running out that there is in most of our common 
schools. 

I will here lay down some general rules to regulate 
this matter which I hope will be of advantage to every 
teacher. There ought to be only one pupil out at a 
time. Some teachers permit their pupils to go out 
without asking or obtaining leave to do so. This ought 
not to be done unless the school is very small. Even 
then I think it better to require the pupils to get per- 
mission. For if pupils are not required to get permis- 
sion of the teacher, some will go out who do not need 
to do so, and others will go out much oftener than nec- 
essary. Whereas if they were required to get permis- 
sion they would not go so often. Again, I believe I 
would give no one permission to leave the room until 
half an hour has elapsed after calling school to order. 



130 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

and for fifteen minutes before dismission or recess. 
Nor would I allow a pupil to go out when his class is 
^bout to recite. 

No comments on the above rules are necessary as 
■every one can see the propriety of them. Here the 
necessity for a clock in the school room is again seen. 
Another good rule is to permit a pupil to go out only 
once between each intermission, that is once before and 
once after recess in the forenoon, and the same in the 
afternoon. 

I will digress here to say that I have seen one cer- 
tain pupil go out three times between the morning re- 
cess and noon, and twice from noon to recess in the af- 
ternoon, making five times from recess in the forenoon 
■to recess in the afternoon, without counting the noon 
intermission. Moreover, in my opinion, each was en- 
tirely uncalled for. The pupil knew his teacher and 
knew that he could get out almost when he pleased, 
merely by asking. The teacher refused twice but the 
pupil persevered because he knew that perseverance 
was all that was necessary. 

To resume. I have found in graded schools that in 



DISPOSITION OF MANY ANNOYANCES, 131 

the higher departments, where the pupils are of an 
older class, it is an excellent arrangement to say to the 
pupils that those who go out during school hours, shall 
stay in at recess. The very pupils who want constant- 
ly to be running out, are the very ones who do not 
want to be deprived of their recess. This rule will 
then cut oif all going out unless it is absolutely neces- 
sary. As intimated, this rule cannot well be adopted 
where there are small children. Exceptions to all these 
rules ought to be made in case of sickness but the pu- 
pil should then be sent home. 

Another necessity of human nature in the school 
room of which many pupils abuse liberty is getting 
water or running to the bucket. I may say that tak- 
ing a drink of water every few minutes is as much a 
habit as the drinking of beer. In order to avoid all 
questions, I would have the water passed four times 
each day, once between each of the intermissions, that 
is once before and once after recess in each half day. 
Besides the four times the pupils can, if they really 
wish water, go to the bucket in the morning before 
school begins, and at each of the recesses and at noon. 



132 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

If the teacher is careful to have the water passed at 
the right time, he will never be annoyed by having his 
pupils ask him every half minute to get a drink. I 
have been in schools where, at times, nearly the whole 
time of the teacher was taken up in hearing, granting 
and refusing requests to go out, to go to the bucket, 
and for other purposes. 

You have of course gathered from what I have said, 
that I would not allow pupils to go to the bucket with- 
out permission. For they will abuse the privilege by 
going too often and by two or more going at a time. 
While on this subject I will name one thing which 
many teachers allow, and that is running to the 
bucket after the bell has rung; so that while school 
is coming to order there are often a dozen or more 
there crowding, jamming and pushing each other 
around, every one snatching at or trying to get the 
dipper or cup. There are two reasons why this ought 
not to be permitted. First, that confusion and disorder 
may be prevented, and secondly, that pupils are then 
warm from running or violent exercise and are apt to 
drink too much. 



DISPOSITION OF MANY ANNOYANCES. 133 

I will here give you an illustration of the manner in 
which pupils will act and of the lengths to which they 
will go if there are no regulations in regard to this 
matter. I was visiting a school this spring. I got to 
the school just a few minutes before recess. I saw 
nothing out of the way with the school before recess. 
At recess, as it was a fine, bright, sunshiny spring day, 
all the pupils went out to play. I perhaps would not 
have thought any thing about their not going to the 
bucket, had not the teacher told them that those who 
were thirsty should drink at recess. Only a few drank 
as they went out. But when recess was over and the 
pupils were called in, two-thirds of them went straight 
to the bucket. As the school was large there was 
quite a crowd there. Of course there was confusion. 

The teacher being a real lady, and very sensitive, 
was constantly blushing with shame that her pupila 
would act so unmannerly when a visitor was present. 
For as is usual, when the school has visitors, there was 
worse conduct and more confusion. I noticed that 
some of the pupils were not satisfied with one dipper 
full of water, but drank, gave the dipper to some one 



134 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

> 

and then waited until they got the dipper again. At 
last, the teacher's patience having worn out, she told 
some of the boys to take their seats. One replied that 
he had had but one dipper full and somebody had 
chucked him under the chin and made him spill it. 
Another said that some one hunched him so that he 
could not drink. Another said that somebody gouged 
him in the side so that he could not drink. The 
teacher then told two or three girls to sit down. One 
said that she had not yet had enough, another was so 
short and snappish in her answer that I could not 
understand what she said. It took between five and 
ten minutes to restore order. 

I am sure that this confusion and insubordination 
had not developed suddenly, but was the outgrowth 
of the whole term. Very little care and firmness at the 
beginning of the school would have sufficed to prevent 
this great evil, which I have no doubt annoyed the 
teacher more or less every time the pupils were called 
in from their play. But after it had become so bad, 
its thorough suppression would require great energy, 
not a little degree of skill, and perhaps a physical 



DISPOSITION OF MANY ANNOYANCES. 135- 

struggle or two between the teacher and one or more' 
of the pupils. What reflections can be made upon 
such a scene in the school-room? 

Now, though it is true that the pupils may have 
been very thirsty, still it is not necessary that such 
scenes be enacted. Any regulation in regard to this 
matter would have made the matter better. Besides 
the teacher must consider that the pupils are often too 
warm to drink after violent exercise in playing and 
running. 

I have related this little bit of experience that you may 
profit by it. Make some rules in regard to this matter. 
You can certainly think of some way to avoid such a 
disgrace to your schools. I may here say that I have 
seen many such scenes, not only in a few, but in many 
schools which I have visited. 

Another great annoyance is the advantage which the 
those pupils, who want to be troublesome, take of the 
heating arrangements of the school-room. Those who 
are nearest the stove complain that they are too warm, 
and want to move back, while those who are farthest 
from the stove complain that they are too cold and 



136 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



want to get nearer the stove. No definite rules can be 
laid down to meet these emergencies. Changing the 
seats of those who complain of heat with those who 
complain of cold will often answer the purpose, for 
there are some who can stand heat best, while there 
are others who can stand cold best. The teacher 
ought, however, to make only one change of seats for 
this purpose, and when this has been done, he ought 
to tell those whom he has changed that he does not 
now want any more complaint. The best thing that 
can be done is to have the room as well and as equally 
heated in all parts as can be. In order to do this 
properly, the teacher ought to have a thermometer and 
ought to be at the house half an hour before time to 
■open school, for the purpose of regulating the temper- 
ature, (as well as for other purposes.) 

It may be well enough in this connection, to say 
that the teacher must remember that no person can 
sstudy well when he is too warm. One then becomes 
too languid. Nor can any one study well when there 
is no ventilation, as is often the case of many of our 
school-rooms. Again, no one can study when too cold, 



DISPOSITION OF MANY ANNOYANCES. 137 

because his attention is then constantly drawn from his 
study to the unpleasant feeling of his body. 

Again, during recess and at noon, as well as in the 
morning, there will always be a crowd around the 
stove. This is a fruitful source of noise and confus- 
ion; for if pupils are allowed, there will always be 
more or less pushing, jamming, pinching and crowding 
each other either toward or away from the stove. I 
would remedy this great grievance by requiring every 
pupil who wanted to be at the stove to sit down and 
keep quiet. If any one whispered or made any noise 
I would immediately send him to his seat, and require 
him to stay there until school was called to order. 

Besides if the teacher has no restriction on going to 
the stove, some pupils will constantly be running out 
at intermission or recess, and will then want to stand 
or sit near the stove. Others will stay out till school 
is called and will then want to get near the fire. The 
teacher should exercise his judgment, and unless 
necessity required, send the pupil to his seat. 

Another great annoyance resulting from the neces- 
sities of the school-room, is having the pupils in the 



138 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

school-room at intermission and recess and when school 
is not in session. I remedy this by requiring all 
pupils who want to remain in the room, to keep their 
seats while they are in the room. And to avoid run- 
ning in and out, I permit them to go out but once. 

If the teacher does not adopt the plan of keeping 
the pupils in their seats during the intermissions as I 
have recommended he can, when there is too much 
noise in the room, call them to order, whether the 
whole time for the intermission has expired or not. -If 
they yell, and stamp, and halloo as they are dismissed, 
he ought to call them to order immediately, and require 
them to take their seats. When he does this he should 
not to do any thing else than preserve almost perfect 
silence till the time for recess is passed, and then he 
ought to begin recitations without any farther recess. 
If it happens at noon, he ought to keep them quiet in 
their seats fully fifteen minutes. He ought to call 
them to order when there is such a large number 
of pupils making a noise in the room, that he cannot 
distinguish who is making the most noise. Thus calling 
them to order will have a very beneficial eifect in pre- 



DISPOSITION OF MANY ANNOYANCES. 139 



venting noise in the room, especially if it is persevered 
in by the teacher. When they got to making so much 
noise that I had to call them to order, I would tell 
them that the school-room is the place for school, not 
the place for play. Thus keeping the pupils in their 
seats will have two good tendencies; it will cause those 
who stay in to be quiet and orderly, and it will cause 
many to go out at recess who would otherwise stay in 
the house, if they were there allowed to play and move 
around. 

There is another thing of which I will now speak^ 
which is a great annoyance. Pupils are constantly 
asking permission to do something, or to get something, 
or to ask some one something, or to speak to some one 
about something. I have been in schools in which it 
seemed that the teacher was there for no other purpose 
than for the granting or refusing of the requests of the 
pupils. A pupil will want to borrow a pencil, a knife, 
a book, a slate, a sponge, a pen, or any one of the many 
hundred things he thinks he must have. Of course 
he will be required to get permission of the teacher, 
because pupils should be required to ask permission to 



140 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

do every thing not in the line of their studies. Pupils 
will conjure up all the questions they can about the 
lessons, and propound them to the teacher. Now, in 
order to avoid all this I would adopt every possible 
plan that it might not be necessary for the pupils to 
ask so many questions. I would train them to remem- 
ber where their lessons were and how much they were 
to take. For those who had been absent, I would give 
a minute every morning, just after the opening exer- 
cises, to find out where their lessons were, or T would 
take so much time myself in telling them. 

Again I would not allow any one to ask a question 
while I was hearing a class recite. Nor would I per- 
mit any questions to be asked which I thought were 
unnecessary. This is one of the annoyances which will 
grow to be almost unendurable, unless it is checked. 

A teacher should, as fiir as possible, attend to all the 
regulations and little requirements of the school, and 
never give them into the hands of the pupils, unless it 
is absolutely necessary. I here refer to attending that 
the room is in the proper temperature, and not per- 
mitting the pupils to make fire when they think it 



DISPOSITION OF MANY ANNOYANCES, 141 

ought to be made. The same may be said in regard ta 
opening the doors and windows of the room, if it is too 
warm, also in regard to passing the water, as I have 
already remarked. Nor should the bell be rung by 
any one except the teacher, or some one under his im- 
mediate direction. For if the pupils have any privilege 
of this kind they will be sure to abuse it, unless it is 
under the superintendence of the teacher. 

I will here speak of another thing, a thing for which 
the pupils are not entirely to be blamed, but of which 
they take the advantage. It is the want of the proper 
books on the part of the teacher. Many teachers have 
no books of their own, but must always borrow of the 
pupils, when they want to look on in hearing the 
classes. This, I may say is a nuisance, caused by the 
teacher. Every one who teaches ought to have alj the 
text books used in the school, ready for use or refer- 
ence upon his desk or table. 

There is in nearly every school a mania among some 
pupils to go after water ; that is if the water used for 
drinking in the school has to be brought in a bucket. 
These pupils keep a watch upon the bucket until it 



142 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT, 



is half empty, and then they ask the teacher for per- 
mission to bring a bucketfull. This, like every thing 
else, soon becomes a standing nuisance, at the least 
encouragement on the part of the teacher. This 
annoyance is usually caused by a certain class of pupils 
who will do anything to get out of the school-room, or 
away from their studies. The teacher should adopt 
some rules for having water brought. If he does iu">t 
he will constantly have this inconvenience to contend 
against. A good plan is to tell those pupils who ask 
to fetch water, to go after it at recess. This closely 
followed will soon break up the habit of being annoyed 
by those who are continually asking permission to bring 
water. 

To avoid confusion, and that pupils may not make 
unnecessary noise in calling a class to the recitation, I 
would do so by number, or in some systematic way, so 
that pupils could not take advantage of the noise, 
which will necessarily then be made, to make more 
noise. When I desired a class to come out, I would 
number "one," at which I would have the class rise 
up in their places, not allowing them to advance any. 



DISPOSITION OF MANY ANNOYANCES. 143 

When I numbered "two," I would have them start 
from their seats to their places at the recitation seat, 
not allowing any one to crowd or step before another, 
but each walking lightly in his or her own place in 
the line to the recitation seat. When all were at 
their places, I would number "three.'' at which I 
would have them sit down upon the seat. Some teach- 
ers, instead of numbering, prefer tapping a bell. This 
does very well, but is not so handy. 

If the class were a large one. I would call them out 
by sections or divisions, perhaps making the girls one 
section and the boys another. If the class were a very 
large one. I would call them out by tiers of seats. If 
there were five tiers of seats across the room, I would 
make five divisions, each consisting of those pupils who 
occupied the same tier of seats. I would dismiss the 
class in the same way that I called them out. 

In a Mental iVrithmetic class, or any class which 
recites without books, I would have the members of 
the class sit erect and fold their arms. While asking 
questions, or in a reading class, while pronouncing the 
words intended to be spelled, if the class spelled orally 



144 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

I would do the same. The propriety of doing this is 
evident. 

In the first place, it is better for the pupil's physical 
body ; in the second, it makes the class look better ; in 
the third place, those in the class will not be so 
likely to get into such bad habits as sitting in improper 
positions, putting their fingers in their mouths, or 
playing with the buttons on their clothes, their hair, 
the flounces on their dresses, or the marbles or other 
playthings which they may have in their pockets. Be- 
sides it will keep them from playing little tricks upon 
each other while in the class. For some pupils can 
scarcely resist the temptation to pinch a fellow pupil, 
or otherwise to tease him when a good chance presents 
itself The members of the class when deprived of 
all tendencies to distract the attention, pay better 
attention to the recitation. When pupils know that 
they have no chance to do anything, except that which 
they ought to do, they will willingly do that. I have 
said before that the removal of temptation will prevent 
many from becoming tricky or mischievous. 

If a pupil is careless or inattentive in the class during 



DISPOSITION OF MANY ANNOYANC'ES. 145 

the recitation, the teacher ought to call upon him to 
recite immediately, even though another pupil is in the 
midst of a train of thought. There is this benefit result- 
ing from calling upon them promiscuously, that they 
being in constant expectation of being called upon, will 
pay much better attention. If they are called upon 
to recite as their names stand upon the roll, or as they 
stiind or are seated in the class, they will soon learn 
the order in which they recite, and many will always 
be more or less inattentive, until they think their turn 
has nearly come. 

The teacher should always manage his recitations so 
that he can, as far as possible, prevent disorder, inatten- 
tion and confusion. Besides if the plan of calling upon 
the pupils in recitation be known before hand, many 
will only study the part they expect to recite, and 
will then have more time to annoy the teacher, be- 
cause they will be idle longer than if they knew they 
must get the whole lesson. 

As you have a place for every one in the class, so 
you should also have a place for every one at the 
blackboard. In general, pupils should be assigned to 



146 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



places at the board as they sit or stand in the class 
while reciting. This ought especially to be done in 
the Arithmetic classes, and may be done in any class 
which uses the blackboard during recitation. Thus 
giving each pupil a place has many advantages. It 
will prevent any disputes for favorite places, it will 
also reduce the amount of confusion when a whole 
class is sent to the board. For each pupil will know 
exactly where to go. It may also prevent crowding 
and pushing, and some times hard feelings between 
pupils, for which the teacher will be held responsible. 
No pupil ought to be changed from one place to 
another during the term without good reason. 

One of the greatest annoyances that many teachers 
permit, is the boisterous manner in which they allow 
their pupils to come in when school is called. Some 
allow them to come whooping and hallooing ; others 
allow them to crowd, and jam, and push each other, 
sometimes almost running over the little ones, and 
often hurting some of them ; and still others allow them 
to straggle in for five or ten minutes after the bell has 
been runo-. I will first recommend that the first bell 



DISPOSITION OF MANY ANNOYANCES. 147 



ought to be rung half an hour before school begins, 
that the pupils may know what time to be upon the 
school grounds. The teacher ought to train his pupils 
so that the moment the second bell rings, or at the 
first tap of the bell to call school, that they will stop 
playing and go in. 

[f the teacher does not require the pupils who are in 
the house to be in their seats during the intermission, 
as was recommended when speaking of the methods of 
preventing noise in the school-room during inter- 
missions, it will be well before the teacher rings the 
bell to take up school, to recjuire all who are in the 
room to take their seats. This he can do by some 
signal which they will all understand, or by merely 
telling them the bell is now going to be rung, and that 
they must take their seats. Then when those come in 
who are out doors, all who were in the room will 
already be <{uiet in their places. This avoids a great 
deal of noise and confusion, especially as some who are 
in the house almost always want to run out, when they 
see that the bell is about to be rung. 

When the teacher rings the bell to call in those who 



148 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



are on the playground, he should go to the door and 
superintend their coming in. If he does not, there will 
soon be some who will not come in as they should, or they 
will not come in until it suits them, or until they think 
it prudent. I have several times, even in the country, 
adopted the plan which many town schools have resort- 
ed to, of requiring the pupils to fall into a straight line, 
or into two lines in front of the door at the first tap of the 
bell, and then in a minute tap the bell again, as a 
signal for them to march in. This, in my opinion, is 
the best plan, as it saves time and avoids confusion. 

After calling school the teacher ought to procure 
perfect order before beginning any exercises or recita- 
tions. In dismissing pupils, I would first recjuire them 
all to get ready to be dismissed, and then dismiss them 
by sections or classes. It ought to be so done that <)?ie 
section or class should all be out of the door before 
another section or class is dismissed. I believe I 
would sometimes dismiss one section first and at other 
times a different one. 

If any pupils, while being dismissed, step before 
others or attempt to go out before their time comes. 



DISPOSITION OF xMANY ANNOYANCES. 149 



they ought to be sent back to their seats, and not be 
dismissed until all the other pupils are out of the room. 
If the same pupils persist in doing so more than two or 
three times, the teacher ought to inflict some other 
punishment, or keep the pupil longer. I have, how- 
ever, found that perseverance in retaining these pupils 
who thus offend until all the others have passed out, or 
a little longer, will have the desired effect. I have fre- 
quently told such pupils that they were in too much 
of a hurry, and that they might now wait until I went. 
If I told them that I would retain them five minutes 
or longer, I always made them wait as long as I told 
them I would and no longer, but dismissed them 
exactly at the time I said I would. After being thus 
detained two or three times these pupils will generally 
be very careful and will afterwards not be in such a 
hurry. 

Those who thus show that they want to be out as 
quickly as they can, are the ones who will be most 
punished by being kept in. By the very act of hurry- 
ing out they show that they are greatly affected by the 
restraints of the school-room. This at once shows the 



150 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

teacher what punishment mo.st aiFects them. He 
should not be slow to take advantage of it. 

The teacher must remember that ii' he allows him- 
self to be bothered a few times by any little thiiig, he 
may be sure that he will soon be often bothered by 
that same thing. For instance, a teacher allows his 
pupils to ask questions about anything, they will soon 
ask questions about every thing. Now, although I 
always like for pupils to ask questions about proper 
subjects at proper times, yet T think a teacher should 
be careful not to let this privilege degenerate or become 
an annoyance. 

Never allow your pupils to talk to you or ask you 
questions while the pupils are coming in when the bell 
has been rung to call them in from their play, to 
their work, or while a class is going to or coming from 
their seats to the recitation. You do not then want to 
attend to any thing else than the way and manner in 
which the pupils of the class are coming out to the 
recitation seat or retiring from it. Your whole atten- 
tion should be so given to avoiding confusion while the 
class is thus upon the floor, that you cannot attend to 



DISPOSITION OF MANY ANNOYANCES. 151 

any questions of the pupils. Besides, pupils when 
they find that your attention can then be diverted, will 
lay plans to do so. If any one asks a question before 
the pupils are quietly seated in their places, either tell 
him to wait till all is quiet or pay no attention to his 
question until all is quiet. 

Very few refusals to grant the pupils' requests, or 
answer their questions, will settle this matter so that 
the pupils will not then ask questions. In fact the 
teacher ought never to allow himself to be annoyed 
with questions while he is busy with anything^ 
whether it is superintending the coming in, or hearing 
a class recite^ or making an explanation of a problem, 
or solving it. I have been in some schools, where as 
soon as the bell is rung to call the pupils in, a half 
dozen would run up to the teacher and ask to go after 
water, or to be excused, or some other thing which can 
jnst as well be done at some other time, while others 
seeing that the teacher's attention was drawn from his 
proper duty, would come pushing, running, crowding, 
jamming in as they see they can make the most noise. 

Do every thing that you can to avoid confusion. 



152 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



Adopt every plan possible to prevent annoyance. It 
so much lightens the teacher's labors, besides it contri- 
butes to the success, progress and reputation of the 
school, to have all things done systematically and to 
have the pupils understand that they are to be done 
so, both by the teacher and the pupils. 

Every teacher ought to make it a study how to 
prevent any acts which ought not to be done in school, 
and the repetition of any acts which are not positively 
annoying, but which may become so so by being re- 
peated. Every teacher of experience knows that 
whenever any thing has been going on for some time, 
even if it does not grow worse, will take much time, 
energy and perseverance to break it up. A very bad 
habit, as well as one of long continuance, requires an 
extraordinary remedy. No teacher ought to allow any 
evil to become a habit. 

A teacher who is careful to prevent any little annoy- 
ing acts will not so often have his attention drawn from 
hearing his classes. This is a very important item. 
For it seems to me that there is nothing so supremely 
iinnoying to a teacher as every half minute to be com- 



DISPOSITION OF MANY ANNOYANCES. 153 

pelled to call some one to order, or to administer some 
reproof for some little unbecoming act. A teacher who 
thus constantly allows his pupils to bother him never 
has a moment of time which he can devote exclusively 
to a recitation or exercise. He cannot listen to a 
pupil who is reading, or parsing, or explaining how he 
solved a problem, and on that account cannot tell 
whether the pupil who is reciting is right or wrong. 
His attention passes from his duty to the class, to the 
conduct of the pupils and back again, really not resting 
thoughtfully upon either, and consequently is thoroughly 
devoted to neither. 

If a teacher is careful to have every lesson well 
recited, that is, if he does not let his pupils pass over a 
lesson or recitation just as if he wanted to get rid of it 
as quickl}^ as possible, they will think that he will 
carry the same trait of character into matters of govern- 
ment, and that he will be just as particular in regard 
to their conduct not to let any irregularity or impro- 
priety pass without the proper attention. Some 
teachers hurry carelessly through every lesson, permit- 
ting all manner of mistakes to pass unnoticed, as well 



154 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

'Afi treating the subject very lightly. This, I may say, 
has its influence upon the conduct of the pupils, and 
begets in their minds an idea that the teacher has the 
same method of doing things in the matter of govern- 
ment. They will judge that he is in one thing as he 
is in the other. For example, if a teacher is particular 
in requiring his pupils during a writing exercise, to sit 
properly and to hold their pens as they should, it will 
cause them to think that he will be particular in other 
respects. They will continue to think so until their 
experience tells them that he is not so. 

Strictness in one thing will have its effects in every- 
thing else; so looseness in one thing will have its effect 
in everything. Consequently strictness in several 
particulars will be sensibly felt throughout all the 
details of school affairs with which the teacher has any 
thing to do ; while on the other hand, looseness in a 
few matters will be just as sensibly recognized in every 
thing done in the school. Therefore if a teacher is 
careful in most of the doings of his pupils, they will 
give him the reputation of being so in nearly all. But 
if he is careless in most, he will get the unenviable 
reputation of being careless in all. 



DiSroSITION OF 3JANY ANNOYANCES. 155 

If lie acts ill a certain way to-day they will naturally 
suppose that he will act the same way to-morrow, and 
also in greater or less degree every day. If he is care- 
ful ill a few matters, they will think that he will be so- 
in others; just so it is if he is careless or lazy. So we 
may come to the conclusion that if a teacher is 
thorough and searching in the examination of his 
pupils in their studies when they recite, he will, in a 
higher or lower degree, be so in regard to the govern- 
ment of his school. 

If there is anything in the school-room, or any of 
its surroundings, which is the source of continual an- 
noyance, disturbance, or confusion, it should, if possible, 
be removed. A blubber in a window glass, a spot on 
the wall, a paper-ball sticking to the ceiling, and many 
other such things have fallen under my observation as 
objects which cause mirth, or at least draw the atten- 
tion of the pupils away from their studies or exercises. 
I have also known a dusting brush to be a fruitful 
source of a certain kind of annoyance. The pupils 
formed the habit of running for it every time they saw 
a speck of dirt or dust upon their books, their seats or 



156 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

their desks, whether the dirt or dust was caused by 
themselves or not. 

The natural inference of teachers of experience would 
be that most pupils go for the brush merely to have 
something to do, to get out of their seats, or to have 
an excuse so be upon the floor. 

If the teacher prevents confusion engendered by such 
things as we have to-day enumerated for a few weeks, 
at the beginning of his school, he will thereafter very 
rarely be annoyed by them. Woe unto him who does 
not ! For he will be annoyed by all these and by others 
which the pupils will invent for the sole purpose of 
gratifying themselves by annoying the teacher. 



LECTURE XL 



THE TEACHERS OWN CONDrCT. 

In our talk to-day I want to speak of some matters 
which the teacher can turn to advantage in the man- 
agement of his school, but which many teachers either 
do not think of or entirely neglect. As the teacher is 
the model for the pupils in the school room, so to a 
great degree he is out of the school room. If he 
smokes he cannot enforce his precepts to be free from 
all vice. His example contradicts his theory. It is the 
same if he chews or uses profane language, or has any 
other bad habit. Every bad habit is a vice. 

I will here single out one vice to which many teach- 
ers are addicted as having perhaps a more pernicious 
influence than any other. I refer to the vice of loaf- 
ing. The teacher who loafs contradicts the very idea 
of school by the incentive to idleness which his exam- 
ple creates. 3Iany of the pupils of our schools have 
without this incentive more ambition to become loafers 



158 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



than they have to become scholars. 80 if their teacher 
is addicted to this habit they will very readily fall into it, 
and when admonished or upbraided for it by their par- 
ents or friends, will point to their teacher and say "the 
teacher loafs.'" Now teachers, do you want to be 
pointed to as an example of a loafer? 

Some teachers claim that it makes no difference with 
a good teacher whether he is guilty of these little 
things or not. because he is getting along well any way, 
and needs not his example to enforce or maintain the 
proper order in his school. The better the teacher, 
the worse the example. A good teacher is looked up 
to and is referred to, and his pupils often wish in many 
things to do as he does ; they want to become like 
him ; therefore they will imitate him in his actions, 
manners and habits, regardless of whether they are the 
best or not. 

Make it a point always to observe the strictest punctu- 
ality in everything, and give your pupils to understand 
that you expect them to do the same. Causing pupils 
to do this, may, in a school which has been loosely 
governed, create some dissatisfaction at first but you 



THE teacher's OWN CONDl'CT. 159 

will be liked all the better afterwards. It is very bad 
policy in school to do one thing yourself and reciuire 
your pupils to do another. 

Do one thing at a time and do not let anything (un- 
less it is something extraordinary) cause you to vary 
from this rule. You cannot call your school to order, 
hear a class recite and reprove a pupil at the same 
time. Teachers not only sacrifice system but confuse 
the minds of their pupils, by endeavoring to do too 
many things at once. The teacher himself as well as 
his pupils, ought to acquire the habit of doing what is 
properly before him at any given time. Then let him 
lay down these rules for his own guidance as well as 
for the guidance of his pupils, that there is a time for 
everything and that everything must be done in its 
time. 3Iany pupils acquire bad habits in school which 
cling to them during their whole lives, and this want- 
ing to do too many things at the same time is one of 
the worst. 

Teachers ought now and then to speak of these mat- 
ters to their pupils. Sometimes a few remarks inci- 
dentally spoken upon a subject of this kind, is seed 



loo SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

sown upon good ground. As I have before hinted, re- 
marks of this kind can do no harm, even if they do no 
good. I may here add by way of encouragement to 
you all, to become good teachers that whatever a suc- 
cessful teacher says will have great weight not only 
with the pupils but with all with whom they associate. 
While on the other hand the remarks of an unsuccess- 
ful teacher will be scorned, will be laughed at, and will 
be reported as the folly of a foolish teacher. Moreover, 
the parents and friends of the pupils will comment un- 
favorably upon what the unsuccessful teacher has said. 
We all know that what one man may say will be re- 
garded as witty or sharp, while if some other person 
says exactly the same thing, it is regarded as foolish 
and weak. The intelligent, the knowing teacher will 
know what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. 

Be careful about little things and greater things will 
take care of themselves. Little things in the school 
room after awhile become big things. The vices of 
school are like weeds, they grow ; and like weeds too 
they choke out and smother whatever good there may 
be. I mean by attention to little things, that if a 



THE TEACHERS OWN CONDUCT. 161 

teacher is strict and suppresses, or does not allow the 
lesser school vices, such as whispering and heavy walk- 
ing over the floor, he will have but little trouble with 
the greater ones, such as fighting on the playgrounds, 
or open insubordination in the school room. The pu- 
pils knowing that he is very rigid in little matters, will 
regard it as a matter of course, that he will be strict in 
proportion to the enormity of the crime. For instance 
let a teacher be very careful not to allow any whisper- 
ing during school hours, nor any loud or boisterous 
talking or laughing in the house during intermission, 
his pupils all knowing this, will naturally be led to 
think that if he is so particular about such little things 
he certainly will be more so about things which they 
themselves know are much more enormous. 

One little thing which I have found so frequent in 
many schools, I must speak of in this place, and that 
is pouting. Never allow any pouting. This is one of 
the things for Which I would punish a pupil for the 
first olfense. For every child who is old enough to go 
to school, knows or ought to know, that it ought to do 
what is required of it and that promptly too, which 



162 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



none who are in the habit of pouting can do. I think 
it one of the worst habits a child can get into, when- 
ever it does not get what it wants, or is not allowed to 
do as it pleases, to become sullen, turn around in its 
seat with its head down, or if it is at home go into a 
corner with its eyes hidden with its arms. Sometimes 
mild means may be best, but it always seems to me 
that for the offense of pouting, vigorous measures are 
the best means that can be employed to secure the de- 
sired end, and to bring a child to a proper sense of its 
duty. For if a child learns that you are going to coax 
it or use mild means, it will pout so much the longer 
and the oftener. 

It seems to me that children pout for the purpose of 
being coaxed. So, that at times, if one only lets them 
alone, they will assume their proper place, and do 
their ,duty in the school room. I may remark here 
that any child which will pout has been very much 
spoiled. 

It may seem a little thing to say that the teacher's 
example has a great influence in the school room. If, 
however, he does everything quietly, it will be much 



TIIK TEACUER'8 own CONDI OT. 1()3 



easier for him to get liiw pupils to do (quietly wliat they 
have to do. If he talks loudly they will do the 
same. If he walks heavily over the floor, they will 
conclude that they have a right to do so. If he 
slams the door of the room and the lids of the desk 
they will naturally think they can do so. If the 
teacher throws books or slates from one desk to another 
his pupils will not wait long until they will do the 
same. Noise begets noise. So if the teacher is noisy 
the pupils will be noisy. 

There is another fault on the part of the teacher 
which I must here allude to. that of talking, reading 
and pronouncing words in such a high key and with 
such force that his voice can be heard over half the 
district, when the windows and doors happen to be 
open. Besides if the teacher reads or talks in such a 
high key the pupils will do .so. 

I think that this pitching the voice so high results 
mainly from the noise in the room. For if everything 
in the room is quiet the teacher and the pupils too can 
be heard without such a pitch and so much force, but 
if there is a great noise the teacher and pupils must 



164 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

talk loudly that they may be heard. In this you may 
yee an additional reason for keeping a quiet school, 
which is that you and your pupils may not get into 
the habit of talking so loudly. 

Again I will say that the teacher is the great exam- 
ple, he is the moral after which the pupils pattern. If 
a teacher is slow about everything, the pupils will be 
slow. If the teacher is slow in dismissing when the 
time has come to dismiss, the pupils will be slow in 
coming in when the bell rings to call them in. Ff the 
teacher is slow in calling out and excusing classes, his 
classes will be slow and sluggish in their recitations. 
On the other hand if he is prompt, it is a great incen- 
tive to make his pupils prompt. 

No scare will long affect a school. When its influ- 
ence has once died out the pupils will be worse than if 
no such means had been resorted to. When a teacher 
who has several times tried to scare his pupils says any- 
thing, though it may not be intended for a scare, the 
pupils will say among themselves, "Oh ! that is just the 
way he talked before and he didn't carry it out." 
After a scare has been tried a time or two, the pupils 



THE teacher's OWN CONDICT. 1(15 

will say, '-We don't care a cent for that, he wont en- 
force it." I have even heard pupils say so within 
hearing of the teacher. This was. however, in a very 
badly regulated school. For instance, a teacher tells a 
pupil to stay in at recess, he ought not to say so to 
scare the pupil into submission or quietness, but ought 
to keep him in and ought not to excuse him from stay- 
ing after five or ten minutes of the recess have passed, 
but ought to keep him in the whole recess. A scare 
is at best a doubtful measure. I may here add that 
doubtful measures should rarely, if ever, be resorted to 
to govern a school. 

Any teacher who supposes that any outside influen- 
ces will affect his school for the better will find him- 
self sadly mistaken. I have known teachers who have 
told their pupils that if -Any misbehaved their names 
would be handed to the school board, to be dealt with 
as the board saw fit. This may have been done only 
for a scare. Even if it is not done for that purpose, 
outside pressure will do but little good. It may be 
beneficial for a day or two but not much longer. And 
when the reaction comes the pupils will take advantage 



166 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

of it and be so much harder to control. The pupils 
must know that there is an ever present, ever active, 
ever watchful power governing them. 

Very few pupils in school will be in any way. much 
influenced for any length of time in their conduct, ex- 
cept by that which they know is immediate and cer- 
tain. A teacher is doing himself harm by any such 
arrangements ; he is weakening his own influence ; he 
is undermining his own power ; he is also destroying 
whatever respect his pupils may have for him. No 
satisfactory arrangement can be made in school matters 
by which the pupils can be made to obey a power be- 
hind the teacher. 

We will now transfer our attention to another matter. 
A teacher who makes his pupils do what he tells them 
to do will seldom have any trouble in having them to 
do as he wishes. In fact a teacher will only occasion- 
ally have any trouble, if he requires implicit and abso- 
lute obedience. But one who does not, will need to 
tell his pupils again and again, even then when obedi- 
ence is given it will only be half-way obeying. There 
are many teachers who ruin their authority in this way. 



THE teacher's OWN CONDUCT. 167 

80 we may come to the emphatic conclusion that when 
a teacher tells a pupil to do anything he ought to make 
him do it without any if s or and's, or hut's. 

If a teacher tells any of his pupils to do anything 
and has any doubt whatever, whether they will do it 
or not, it then becomes his duty to see to it that it is 
done. Otherwise a teacher ought never to tell a pupil 
to do anything. A teacher or a parent either, would 
much better not tell a child to do anything, than to 
tell it to do something and let it do it or not as it 
pleases. The child will soon learn that it can obey or 
not, and will of course follow its own inclinations. 
When children once get into the habit of doing as they 
like about such matters, it is much more difficult to 
correct the habit than it is to train the child properly 
in the first place. Besides by not doing what the par- 
ent or teacher tells the child to do is disobedience, 
wilful disobedience. And we may say that there is no 
habit so bad in a young person, or even in a little child 
as the habitual disobedience of parents and teachers. 

When a teacher tells a pupil to do anything, he 
ought not only to be very careful to see that it is done, 
but also that it is done as he has told the pupil to dO' 



168 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

it. Often pupils when told to do anything, delay or 
do not do it as the teacher wants it done. Everything 
that the teacher requires of a pupil ought to be done 
properly, neatly and promptly. If the teacher does 
not attend to the proper execution of anything he re- 
quires, the pupils will very soon lose respect for what 
he says. If for no other reason, you ought then, in 
order to retain the respect of your pupils, and to pre- 
serve your authority over them, make them do what 
you have told them to do as you have told them to 
do it. 

True it is, that a teacher may sometimes tell pupils 
to do some things he would not tell them if he knew 
all the circumstances connected with it. Then if the 
teacher learns those circumstances, be they either those 
connected with the pupil or the thing to be done, it 
will be proper and prudent to modify his demands ac- 
cordingly. Here again, you can all see the necessity 
of the teacher's considering well everything in refer- 
ence to any act or demand which he makes of his pu- 
pils. It has been said that it is better to err on the 
side of Mercy than on the side of Justice. This may 



THE TEACHER S OWN CONDUCT. 169 

be true : but Mercy is often sacrificed in the very act of 
erring in her favor. 

In the time that remains for this lecture, I want to 
call your attention to another matter. I find that our 
lectures on this subject must close sooner than I ex- 
pected. So in order to treat of as many topics as pos- 
sible. I have resolved to crowd my thoughts on three 
or four different subjects into one lecture. 

If I could not remember well I would get me a little 
book, such as a pocket memorandum, in which I would 
note down anything I did not want to forget. Many 
times there are things we want to do at some future 
time, but for want of memory, forget them until it is too 
late. If we have some note or memorandum of them 
we are not so likely to forget them, even if we do not 
refer to our notes, the mere act of writing them down 
seeming to fasten them on our memory. For instance, 
a boy has a poor lesson on Friday, if I say to him I 
want him to get it better on Monday when I will call 
upon him again, I would note it down upon a slip of 
paper or in my memorandum book, because otherwise 
I would forget it. 



170 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

It would certainly be much better to remember it if 
I could do 80. Merely a word or two of notes, or the 
name of the pupil, would suffice to call my attention to 
it when in looking over my memorandum, my eye 
caught the writing. Of course I would not let my pu- 
pils know that I had any such note or memorandum. 
By doing this every pupil will soon learn that when 
you say that anything must be done in the future, that 
you do not forget it, but that you will remember it, 
however long a time may intervene, and will require it 
or enforce it as the case may be. They will also learn 
that when you tell them to do anything tomorrow or 
next day or next week, that they will certainly be 
called upon to do it. 

Every person whether a teacher or not, ought to 
overcome his short comings and weaknesses. Espe- 
cially ought we as teachers, to get rid of all our vices 
and bad habits. Every one who intends to teach may 
be sure that his faults will be made prominent by the 
necessities of the school room. His temper will be 
tried, his energy exhausted, his patience worn out, his 
perseverance sorely taxed, and even the fire of his en- 



THE teacher's OWN CONDUCT. 171 

thusiasm burnt out. Many times will he be at his wits 
end for some expedient to control his school, either to 
curb a growing evil, to restrain a naughty pupil, or to 
counteract the tendency of some to insubordination. 

The teacher should never betray his feelings what- 
ever they may be; he should not let his pupils know 
that he is ever vexed or perplexed. He should at all 
times and under all circumstances, preserve a heroic 
stoicism. He should always seem to his pupils to be 
ready for any and every emergency which may arise. 

Many teachers ruin their schools by their own folly 
in rendering themselves incompetent to govern them. 
I here refer to a physical as well as an intellectual in- 
competency. By staying up late at night and thus de- 
priving themselves of the necessary amount of sleep, 
many teachers render themselves unable to manage 
their schools properly. There is no profession, busi- 
ness or trade, which requires as much sleep as the 
teacher's, because his mind is upon a constant strain 
more hours than any other's. One or two nights' loss 
of sleep will make a teacher unfit to discharge his 
school duties for a week and sometimes more. His 



172 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

whole system is deranged by this irregularity, and it 
takes it some time to resume the proper condition. 

Many teachers are so gluttonous that they will now 
and then render themselves unfit to perform their du- 
ties for a whole day because of the overcrowded condi- 
tion of their stomachs. Others again by violent exer- 
cise for an hour or two in the morning, or a few min- 
utes at recess or noon, are too much fatigued to devote 
the proper attention to their schools. I here tell you 
and I wish I could make it ten times as emphatic, that 
a teacher should be regular in his habits. There is no 
other profession which gives such abundant opportuni- 
ties for thorough system in everything. His duties are 
all marked out for regular hours. He then opught to 
take the hint to eat; sleep and do all other things at 
regular and seasonable hours. 

A teacher should all the time be of one disposition. 
Not sometimes lenient, and at others rigid and exacting. 
He should so act, and so give his pupils to understand, 
that if they violated any rule that punishment was 
sure. Sometimes some teachers punish for the infrac- 
tion of a rule, at other times they will not for a viola- 



THE teacher's OWN CONDUCT. 175 



tion of the same rule. I think it must be much owing 
to the temper they are in at the time. This leads pu- 
pils to think that they may sometimes violate the rules 
and escape punishment. The teacher should always 
act as he has all along been acting, so that his pupils 
may know in any case just what may be expected. 
Those countries whose laws sometimes dispense justice 
and sometimes not, can scarcely be called civilized. So 
the teacher who at times is just and humane and at 
other times unjust and despotic, sometimes vigilant and 
active, and at others careless and lazy, may certainly 
be classed among the lesser lights of his profession. If 
he willfully and knowingly permits an act at one time, 
he should do so at all other times. For instance he 
permits a pupil to leave his seat or to go out without 
permission once, he should continue to do so unless he 
calls the attention of the whole school to the matter 
and then and there tells all his pupils that he does not 
want any of them to do so. Then he must see that 
this is enforced. 

When a teacher hears or sees a pupil do something 
which ought not to be done, he should, at the earliest 



174 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

possible moment thereafter, take measures or adopt 
some means to suppress it or at least to prevent its 
repetition. On account of the natural disposition of 
human beings to procrastinate and put oiF unpleasant 
duties, this will be one of the most difficult tasks. 



LECTURE XI I. 



HOW TEACHERS SHOULD TALK. 

Some teachers do not seem to know how they should 
talk to their pupils, nor what effect the different modes 
of speaking to them may have upon them, I shall to- 
day devote a part of our time to giving you a few hints 
on the manner in which teachers should speak to their 
pupils. In speaking to my pupils I would do it kind- 
ly, but in such a tone and in such a manner that my 
pupils would understand that I meant exactly what I 
said. There may be some trouble to get your pupils 
to understand you at the beginning of a term, especial- 
ly if you are successor to one who has not been so 
careful in his language and manner. Yet as I have 
said before, perseverance will accomplish almost any- 
thing in the school room in the matter of keeping- 
order. 



176 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

When a teacher speaks to his pupils he should speak 
in such a way that they cannot think otherwise than 
that he is talking to them to do them good ; that he is 
trying to make them better scholars or better men and 
women. He should never speak to them as if he were 
impatient or disgusted with them. If he does he may 
be sure that it will in some way reacfe upon him. 

When a teacher is talking to his pupils he should 
observe the effect it has upon them. If at any time he 
sees that his efforts fall like seed upon barren ground, 
he should cease talking, but if he sees that the pupils 
are listening attentively, he will know that he is doing 
good and may go on. Pupils are always anxious to 
hear what any one whom they respect has to say, if it 
is properly said at the right time. A teacher should 
never talk long. Nor should he go over and over again 
the same things without putting his thoughts in differ- 
ent language or his ideas into different attitudes. 

Never tell your pupils more than once to do any- 
thing. Be sure to speak in language that they will 
understand. If they do not then comply with your re- 
quirements, punish them or deprive them of some priv- 



HOW TEACHERS SHOULD TALK. 177 

ilege as the nature of the offense may require, so that 
they will wish that they would have done as you told 
them to do. All that any teacher wants is that the 
pupils understand that he will not speak to them more 
than once. If a teacher once gets into the habit of 
speaking twice to his pupils they will think that he 
will speak three or four times or oftener. Then they 
will begin to hesitate when he tells them to do anything 
and will soon begin to despise his requests, disregard 
his commands, and laugh at his threats. If the teach- 
er must resort to compulsory measures he might as well 
do so after telling his pupils once as by telling them 
oftener. 

If he is very careful to carry out what he says 
he will not often need to resort to harsh measures. On 
the other hand if he often says that the pupils must 
behave better or he will have to resort to severe pun- 
ishment, they will not obey and will soon learn to 
mock what he says. 

It may be asked what will you do if the pupil does 
not do as you want him to do after you have told him 
once? I will just answer this by asking another ques- 



178 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



tion. What will you do if you tell a pupil twenty 
times and he still refuses to do as you tell him ? Then 
I would answer, do just what you would do if you had 
told him a dozen times. In fact you can more readily 
overcome your pupils in the way that you want to over- 
come them, by making them do as you want them to 
do after telling them just once, than if you tell them 
time and again. Pupils must understand that words 
will be backed by something else if it becomes neces- 
sary. 

If you wish a favor done use some such phrase as 
"Please," or "Will you please be so kind" or "Will 
you oblige me by doing this or that." It must be a 
very heathenish pupil indeed who would disregard the 
teacher's wishes thus politely expressed. Again I may 
say for your encouragement to become good teachers, 
that pupils always are anxious to do a favor for a teach- 
er who is considered successful, while they are a little 
wary of doing favors for one who is a failure. 

When you say anything mean it. Do not heedless- 
ly speak out that you will do this or that, or something 
else if a certain pupil does not do better, or if the whole 



HOW TEACHERS SHOULD TALK. 179 



school does not behave better. Nothing can have such a 
bad effect upon a school as for the teacher to say upon the 
commission of every little oifense, "If you do not do 
better I will have to whip you." Thus constantly 
speaking of inflicting punishment without doing so, has 
a ruinous effect upon the teacher's authority. 

I was once visiting a school, where two pupils had 
been at the bucket drinking for sometime, and then 
went to the stove and warmed and then again to the 
bucket. The teacher who noticed their movements, 
very impatiently cried out in a harsh voice, "When you 
get thawed out and filled up inside, take your seats." 
I was much surprised at such an outburst of passion, 
more at the manner than at the words, because the 
teacher was a minister of the gospel. 

After having listened to these lectures for the past two 
weeks, you all, perhaps, know that such an occurrence 
would not be very likely to take place in my school, and 
if it should take place you can perhaps imagine what I 
would have done. When I had made my arrangements 
and told the pupils what I wanted, what I expected 
and what I would exact from them, I would attach 



180 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

8ome penalty, however slight the offense, to every act 
which I had forbidden. It is preferable to saying, -'I 
will punish you if you do so again.'' 

A teacher ought to be very careful what he says. 
In fact he ought not to say anything without mature 
deliberation. Especially ought a teacher never to say 
anything for effect. For this is like a scare, after a 
(lay or two the effect will be just the opposite from 
what he intended. Everything strange, extraordinary, 
or anything out of the ordinary language of the teacher, 
will be reported at home and will be commented on by 
the parents, brothers, sisters, and associates and com- 
panions of the pupils. You cannot be too careful how 
you speak to them. 

Never bandy words with them. 8ome teachers 
will dispute with a pupil for half an hour in the pres- 
ence of the whole school. This, besides being entirely 
unprofitable, is also ruinous to the teacher's authority. 
As every one knows, who knows anything about schools, 
that the sympathies of the pupils are very rarely for 
the teacher, but are nearly always for their fellow- pu- 
pils. ^0 in a dispute between the teacher and a pupil, 



HOW TEACHERS SHOTLD TALK, 181 

(or we might say in the quarrel), the pupils nearly al- 
ways side with the pupil. Besides, this wrangle be- 
tween the teacher and a pupil nearly always has the 
opposite effect from that intended by the teacher ; in- 
stead of strengthening his authority it weakens it. 

In speaking to them be sure that you are 
right and let them know by your manner, your 
words, and your tone that you think so. Do not let 
them have the opportunity of contradicting you. 
You will find it a safer plan if you want to argue a 
point with a pupil to take him aside after dismission 
and there argue it with him privately. 

A teacher should never make any command which 
he does not expect to be obeyed. Indeed he should 
use force if necessary, to compel the doing of whatever 
he may command. He ought not, however, to com- 
mand for the mere sake of being obeyed, but only when 
it is absolutely necessary for the legitimate good of the 
school. I may here say, parenthetically, that one can- 
not be to too careful in carrying out what he commands 
or requires. For pupils very readily learn that a teach- 
er will now and then be irresolute if he really is so. 



182 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

If you do not carry out what you tell to tlie school, 
your pupils will very soon learn to disregard your com- 
mands ; there is then but a step to deriding them. 

If a teacher tells his school that he is going to do a 
thing, he ought to do it, it makes no difference what it 
is, whether it is a promise to them or the enforcement 
of a rule or regulation. Therefore he ought never to 
make any threats. Threats are generally made in ex- 
citement, intended only as an intimidation for the time, 
and are very rarely enforced. P]very one should try 
to keep from getting excited in the school room in re- 
gard to school affairs; but should remain cool and 
calm whatever be the circumstances. Nor ought a 
teacher to make any rash promise which he is not sure 
that he can fulfill. 

Never scold. If your pupils do not do as they ought, 
it is greatly your own fault. Simply tell them 
what you want them to do or not to do. Then if they 
do not do what you have told them, make them do it. 
Scolding only betrays that you are out of humor and 
pupils will often think that you do not know what else to 
do. Besides scolding does no good. In fact it does harm. 



HOW TEACHERS SHOULD TALK. 183 

When you are talking to a pupil look right at him, 
and do not put on such an appearance as though you 
were afraid or ashamed to talk to him, or as though 
you were guilty of some mean act in doing so. Some 
teachers say they cannot help it, they sometimes hate 
to talk to some pupils about some things. I say get 
over this as quickly as possible ; you will never make 
efficient teachers until you do. Where it is necessary 
to talk to pupils do what you think you ought to do 
without giving yourself time to think how you will 
feel. The more time you take for any matter that you 
do not like to do the worse you will dislike to do it. 
Besides the effect will not be so good. 

Again, never try to come at matters in a round about 
way. Sometimes teachers, to prevent whispering, say, 
"I hear some one whispering. Who is it?" and then 
put themselves into an attitude as though they were 
listening. This may prevent whispering for a very 
short time but I think it bad policy. The teacher 
should speak directly to the pupil, "John, I hear you 
whispering," and then go on and do whatever he thinks 
will cause John, as well as others, to quit that vice in 



184 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



school. Teachers will all sooner or later, learn that it 
never does much good, thus to beat matters about the 
bush. "Drive directly at the point," would be a good 
motto for teachers. 

Every one who has taught has noticed that some 
pupils when spoken to by the teacher, seem to be very 
much offended and assume a very injured air, presum- 
ing that it is a mean insult to them that he should 
even think that they could be guilty of such a thing 
as he has spoken to them about. They seem 
to think that it is preposterous that any one should 
at all suppose that they are or even could be guilty of 
any impropriety. This is very often only the means 
they have of trying to cause the teacher to believe that 
they never do such things. What such pupils want is 
to relieve themselves of all suspicion. Special atten- 
tion ought to be given to pupils who manifest such an 
injured air when the teacher says anything to them. 
Though they seem to be so much wronged because 
they are suspected, they are often the very ones who 
are the originators of mischief or trouble. They put 
on this injured air that they may cause the teacher to 



HOW TEACHERS SHOILD TALK. 185 

think that they are not the ones who are concerned in 
such affairs. If a pupil once finds that he can thus 
^'come it over the teacher,' (as they say) he will try 
it often. Such pupils will even reply to the teacher in 
an inquiring manner, "Do you suppose that I would do 
any such an insignificant thing?'" 

Never make any reflections on any of your predeces- 
sors, however unsuccessful they may have been. For 
you may thereby offend some who have been their 
friends notwithstanding their ill success. For you all 
know that almost every teacher, though he may have 
failed to discipline his school, has some friends just the 
same as one who has taught a very successful school 
will have some enemies. Besides, it is unmanly to at- 
tack a person who has perhaps done his best, and who, 
being absent, cannot defend himself And then a 
teacher who makes disparaging remarks about his pre- 
decessor, is teaching his pupils by his example, the 
pernicious habit of tattling. Again it is a very little 
business for a man who is supposed to have enough in- 
telligence to be a teacher and a leader of public opin- 
ion, to say things about persons whom perhaps he does 



186 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



not know, especially when he knows that his speaking 
as he does can do no good whatever. 

We will now change the subject of discourse a little. 
It will never do to favor any pupil. The teacher will 
gain more than he will lose by being the same to all 
his pupils. He will certainly accomplish more good 
by treating all alike, than by favoring some whom he 
thinks will not bear a close restriction on account of 
the wealth, social position of their parents, or for some 
other reason. He may often think, "Now if I call this 
pupil to account T will be censured for it."' A teacher 
may sometimes make enemies, for a time, of some of 
his pupils or of their parents by a rigid enforcement of 
his orders, but when they find that he uses other pu- 
pils the same way and acts without partiality or favor, 
and from a sense of duty, they scarcely ever fail to be- 
come his best friends. Teachers very frequently fail 
in government because they lack the moral courage to 
withstand what they fear would create a little neigh- 
borhood gossip. But let me tell you that a teacher 
will gain more honor and greater popularity by being 
firm than by pampering to the good graces of the town 



HOW TEACHERS SHOULD TALK. 187 



or district. Even the pupils whom you thus favor will 
afterwards be harder to govern. They will think that 
you are afraid of them or that you dare not, for some 
reason or another, call them to account because of their 
standing in the community. The sooner a teacher gets 
such pupils disabused of this idea, the better it will be 
for both teacher and pupils. Many pupils especially 
the larger ones are in the habit of asking the teacher 
to excuse them from their classes or from school for 
some reason or another, often very frivolous ones too. 
I will here say that if a teacher makes it a rule never 
to excuse any one from school or from any one or more 
of his classes, and adheres rigidly to it, he will 
find that he will in a short time very rarely be asked 
to do so. In case of sickness the teacher must of 
course excuse the pupil, but he should, in some places 
at least, be very careful that he is not imposed upon. 
After excusing a pupil because of sickness, he should 
inquire after his health of the parents, brothers, sisters, 
friends or neighbors. I have several times thus de- 
tected pupils who feigned sickness in order to get ex- 
cused from school. Aside from all the considerations 



188 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

we have mentioned, excusing pupils from school or from 
their cla.sses has a bad effect upon both the school and 
upon the pupil. 

You may sometimes think that it will be better to 
suspend the operation of a rule for this or that pupil or 
this or that particular instance, but you will soon learn 
that you will gain more by a firm adherence to the 
rule. If you relax the sternness (if! may so speak) 
of a rule for one particular pupil in one instance, you 
will soon be called upon again by the same pupil to do 
the same thing again, or to suspend the rule in another 
respect, or to suspend another rule. Then if you re- 
fuse you will incur a greater displeasure from that pu- 
pil than if you had positively refused when the pupil 
first desired you to favor him. A school may easily 
be ruined by thus acceding to the wishes of some pu- 
pil. Besides, when you do this a time or two, it will 
not be long until partiality will be charged. When 
that is once charged against a teacher it will be be- 
lieved by some, however slight the grounds for the 
charge may be. After this almost every act of the 
teacher is construed as favoring some pupil or another. . 



now TEACHERS SHOULD TALK. 189 



You must also take into consideration that granting 
a pupil's request merely because he asks it, is really an 
unkindness to the pupil instead of a kindness. You 
will afterwards, almost certainly, be compelled to dis- 
please this pupil in some respect, and why not do so in 
the first place and thus preserve your rules intact, have 
a clear conscience and be free from the charge of parti- 
ality or favoritism ? You ought further to consider 
that when any one knows that you do a thing which 
you ought not to do. merely because he asks it. he 
forms a worse opinion of you. 

The teacher ought to talk often with the par- 
ents and guardians of the children under hi& 
charge, also with the people of the town or neigh- 
borhood who have no children. He ought to do 
this not only that he may cultivate the friendly 
feelings that ought to exist between the teacher and 
the parents but also that there may be an interchange 
of opinions in regard to matters connected with the 
school. He may thus often learn that some faults have 
crept into his management of the school, almost uncon- 
sciously to himself, but which are well known to the 



190 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



parents and children. Pupils as you are all aware, are 
always striving to hide all their faults from the teacher, 
but many are not so careful to hide them from their 
parents and brothers and sisters and the people of the 
town or district. The teacher ought in fact to bring 
every resource to bear which can in any way contribute 
-to the success of the school. And this association with 
persons who do not attend school, will be one source 
from which he can learn his own faults, and also the 
vices of his pupils which had escaped his notice. 

Be independent in your intercourse with the parents 
of your pupils. Do not assent to everything they say 
merely because you are afraid they will not like it if 
you contradict them. You ought of course not to be 
crusty or snappish, but you must be affable and polite. 
You uiust be pleased to see the parents and you ought 
to make them think and feel that you are glad to know 
them. Be always willing to give them the reasons for 
anything you have done at school. Very frequently a 
teacher must appease an enraged parent. Sometimes 
this is hard to do, but it is best done by a manly bear- 
ing during the conference. Never try to please every 



HOW TEACHERS SHOULD TALK. 191 

body. As sure as you do you will please nobody and 
you will become disgusted with yourselves. Do what 
you think is right; then if you please nobody, you will 
yourselves at least have a conscious pride that you have 
done right and can meet every one, and any one of the 
patrons of the school without shame. Whereas if you 
try to please everybody, you cannot meet any one with- 
out a feeling that you may have done something that 
has not pleased him or her whom you are meeting, and 
that what you have done, you know yourself was 
not altogether right. 

There will often be a conflict between your wishes 
and your duty ; between your inclinations and your 
conscience ; the one prompting you to do this, the 
other telling you that it would not be ri^ht. I may 
here remark that whatever is expedient in the school 
room is right. Many young teachers think that they 
will hurt this ones or that one's feelings by doing- 
something or omitting something that ought to be done. 
Let me tell you that a straight forward course is al- 
ways best for the teacher and for the pupils. 

Never trv tu smooth a matter over after it is once 



192 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

settled. It is much better to leave it when once settled 
than to try to mend it or apologize for it and by these 
means bring up the whole matter afresh. When a pupil 
or any one else finds that you are in anxiety about a mat- 
ter, instead of being appeased, he will feel that you 
ought to make some further concession. I would not 
have said anything about this but some teachers seem 
to have a constitutional hankering after stirring up old 
troubles. 

Avoid making difficulties as much as you can. Some 
teachers seem to want to make difficulties in order to 
get the opportunity of overcoming them. It is much 
better to prevent a difficulty than to dispose of it or 
settle it after it has arisen. I do not want to be un- 
derstood that I advocate avoiding the settlement of a 
difficulty. For I think there is no quality which many 
of our teachers lack most than the courage to adjust a 
misunderstanding between teachers and parents or be- 
tween teachers and pupils. 

It will not take a young teacher long to learn that 
on some days schools are much harder to control than 
on others. Some evenings you will go from the school 



HOW TEACHERS SHOULD TALK, 193 

house delighted with the way in which you have con- 
ducted matters. Other evenings you will go home dis- 
gusted with the school and out of humor with yourself. 
Sometimes the pupils are to blame ; at other times the 
teacher. Sometimes you will think yourself enthusi- 
astic and energetic enough to meet almost any difficul- 
ty : at other times you will find yourself almost ready 
to give up in despair. You must guard against these 
times of depression. 

Some teachers think that, when things do not go 
well if they could only dismiss a pa*i"t of the school, the 
rest would not be so troublesome. This is a mistake. 
For when a part of the pupils are dismissed, those who 
remain, also want to be dismissed and will become rest- 
less and inattentive to their studies and recitations, 
thereby causing more trouble than if none at all had 
been dismissed. When teachers feel tried or worried 
and do not feel like hearing classes, it becomes their 
duty to muster up strength and to summon all their 
energies to go through with their duties as their duties 
appear to them. Often we do not feel like doing what 
we have to do. If we yield to this feeling once, it will 



194 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



afterwtiRl? be much harder to overcome. Therefore, 
when such feelings come over us we should do our ut- 
most to overcome them. Giving up to them once pre- 
pares the way to give up again. 

Do not allow yourself to get low-spirited. If you 
do. and your pupils find it out. j^ou will have more 
•difficulty with them because there are always some 
Avlio want to take every advantage and such are always 
.aggressive and want to make all the encroachments 
they can upon the order and system you have adopted. 

T will here speak* further on a topic to which I have 
merely alluded. When an aggrieved parent comes to 
you to talk about a punishment which has been inflict- 
ed, tell him to wait and to listen to you, and that you 
will tell him all about it. Then tell him all the facts 
connected with the matter. In order to do this you 
may have to go back weeks and even months, to trace 
the conduct of the pupil who was punished. In many 
cases such a review w^ill be absolutely necessary that 
the parent may understand why the pupil was pun- 
ished. If at any time he interrupts you, tell him to 
wait until you have told him the whole story and that 



HOW TEACHERS SHOULD TALK. 195 



he may then talk. When you are through ask him if 
he wants to screen or justify a person who has done as 
his child has done. If the parent is not inclined to 
believe what you say, tell him that it is useless to talk 
farther and then walk away from him, thus leaving 
him to his own thoughts. If he does not agree with 
you in any matter, tell him that you are of a different 
opinion. 



LECTURE XIII. 



WHAT THE TKACHER SHOTTLI) STUDY. 

It behooves the teacher to look down deep into the 
well of human thought: it behooves him to know if he 
can the motives by which children are actuated and he 
ought, as far as is in his power, to know the inmost 
thoughts and feelings of his pupils. There is no other 
profession which requires such thorough knowledge of 
human character. The teacher needs this knowledge 
both that he may know how to instruct his pupils and 
that he may know how to govern them. How can a 
man without a knowledge of human nature expect to 
govern, control, and manage beings endowed with that 
nature ? He may do it by brute force. But in order 
to govern as he should, he must know the desires, the 
motives and the impulses, which prompt men not only 
to do evil but also those which prompt men to do good. 



WHAT THE TEACHER SHOULD STUDY. 197 

He ought to know what prompts his pupils to misbe- 
have in order that he may check it, or if possible, to 
entirely remove it. Likewise ought he to know what 
prompts them to behave in order to place before them 
the proper inducements to do so. Besides a teacher 
often needs a competent knowledge of human nature 
when an aggrieved parent or guardian comes to him 
with some complaint in regard to his child at school. 
He ought to know when to be calm and mild and when 
to be rigid and stern. I would like to say something- 
further on this subject, but cannot do so to-day. Per- 
haps I may have an opportunity in our next lecture, as 
the subject is somewhat of a kindred nature to the sub- 
jects to which I propose to call your attention to-day. 
Akin to a knowledge of human nature is vigilance 
on the pai't of the teacher. Without it his school will 
soon be a bedlam, notwithstanding he may have begun 
under the most favorable auspices. I will here exclaim 
in the thoughts, if not the words, of an eminent orator 
of the Revolution : Be vigilant, be active, be brave, 
but above all be vigilant. There is a political maxim 
that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. AVe may 



198 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

make a parallel maxim for the teacher of our common 
schools, that eternal watchfulness is the price of success 
in disciplining a school properly. The teacher must 
be careful to thwart any plans to which the pupils re- 
sort to over-ride or to make his rules and regulations 
ineifectual. 

It is often interesting to notice the expedients to 
which pupils will resort for the purpose of heading off 
the teacher, (as they say). The teacher will be com- 
pelled, if he desires to be successful, to exercise con- 
stant and unremitting vigilance to discover and thwart 
them in their designs. The pupils will adopt all sorts 
of plans, and will study up every device ingenuity can 
invent, to circumvent the teachers plans. They 
will debate in their own minds and with each oth- 
er, the feasibility of some plan to get around the con- 
struction of some rule. The pupils, or many of them, 
will study much harder at this than they will to get 
their lessons. Tf the teacher does not exercise care, he 
will soon find that his pupils have rendered his rules 
almost useless, or wholly inapplicable to the purpose 
for which they were made. 



WHAT THE TEACHER SHOULD STUDY. 199' 

I will here give an instance of the ingenuity which 
pupils will exercise, which has fallen within my own? 
experience as a teacher. I was then teaching the high 
school in the second story of a large building with five 
departments of school in it. The pupils got to making 
too much noise in the halls and entries during the in- 
termissions. To remedy this, I being the principal, 
forbade the pupils of my own department, and told all 
the teachers in the building to forbid any one to be in- 
the hall, except when passing in when school was called 
and in passing out when school was dismissed. This 
caused them to remain in their rooms. There was 
then quiet in the halls and entries, but the pupils soon 
became too noisy in the room. (I have reference now 
only to the high school, because for the government of 
the pupils in their own rooms. I allowed the teachers tO' 
make their own rules). 

When the pupils became too noisy in the room. I 
told them that all who were in the room at intermis- 
sion should not be allowed to run to and fro over the 
floor, or stand at the windows, but should remain in 
some seat or another. Certain ones always contrived 



200 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



to get together, and after a short time, again began 
making too much noise. So I made a rule that each 
one should keep his or her own seat whenever he or 
she was in the room, whether it was before school in 
the morning, or noon, or at recess. This answered the 
purpose very well for several weeks. 

After a time those pupils who always were anxious 
to be together wanted permission to go into the other 
rooms for the purpose, they said, of seeing the teachers 
or pupils there. Of course I could not allow this, as 
it would undo all I had done to keep them quiet 
while they were in the building. After failing so far 
in their schemes, these pupils, at the beginning of cold 
weather when fire was required, wanted to sit up around 
the stove, pleading that they wanted to warm. Here 
the noisy ones again got together and talked and 
laughed as loud as ever. When I saw that this would 
not do, I told them or rather made a rule, that none 
who were out of their own proper seats warming at the 
stove, should talk or even whisper, while they were 
there warming. All those who whispered or in any 
way made the least confusion while there, I sent to 



WHAT THE TEACHER SHOULD STUDY. 201 

his or lier own seat, or put them into some other seat 
in another part of the room. If they complained that 
they were cold there, I told them that that was a pun- 
ishment for disobeying the rules, or that they ought 
not to have whispered, or that it was their own fault 
that they were not now sitting nearer the stove. Of 
course I did not put them where they would actually 
suffer from cold. This rule served two good purposes. 
It prevented confusion and noise around the stove, and 
kept all pupils away from the stove who did not actu- 
ally need to go there to warm. For you all well know 
that pupils will not deprive themselves of the privilege 
of talking during recess or at intermission, unless neces- 
sity compels them to do so. So none came to the stove 
unless they really needed to warm themselves. Of 
course I required them to get permission for this pur- 



After being thus frustrated in all the plans they had 
devised, it took them some time to conjure up another 
to get around these rules. In order to obtain an ad- 
vantage, the pupils made an excuse that they wanted 
to get books from the library. The book-case contain- 



202 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

ing the library stood out in the hall. The device the 
pupils adopted was to ask permission to go out at recess 
or before school to make selections of books. I told 
them that I had not the keys to the book-case, but 
that I would get them next day. Having forgotten 
the keys next day, I was very much annoyed by those 
who said they wanted to get books. Thus matters 
went on several days. These pupils seemed very anx- 
ious to get something to read from the library, and be- 
came very clamorous for books. I noticed too and 
thought it very strange, that those who were most eager 
to get books were those with whom I had had the most 
trouble in my previous efforts to maintain order and 
decorum during the times for intermission. 

When I got the keys, I told the pupils that I had 
them and that for those who wanted to get books, I 
would make a rule or two ; first, that I would allow 
only one out at the library at a time, and that when 
that one had chosen a book and come in and taken his 
seat, then another might go out and so on until all who 
wanted books were supplied, or if they would wait un- 
til school was out in the evening, as many as wanted 



WHAT THE TEACHER SHOULD STUDY. 203 

books could go out and get them without any restric- 
tion as to the number of pupils in the hall. 

I am sorry to say that but one book was taken by 
those pupils who were so clamorous to get them. The 
very fact that they did not take any books proves that 
they were not so anxious to get them, but that they 
wanted thus to evade the rules made to keep them out 
of the hall and in their seats. They only wanted to be 
out in the hall to be away from under the eye of the 
teacher, to talk, laugh and retail their gossip. It 
would only have been a few days until they would have 
made as much noise in the hall as ever. As soon as I 
announced what would be the rules for getting books, 
I saw by the looks of these pupils that they were dis- 
appointed. 

After this I had no more experiments with these 
pupils in this direction ; but I have not the least doubt 
that if school should have lasted two or three months 
longer, some other expedient would have been resorted 
to by these pupils, to evade these rules. I could give 
you many other similar cases which have come to my 
own knowledge, both while I was a pupil and since I 



204 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

have become a teaclier, especially since I have been 
placed as a superintendent over other teachers. Then, 
considering all the facts, how important it is to the 
teacher that he knows the aims, purposes, and designs 
of his pupils. He should know the incentive as far as 
he can learn it of every act which his pupils do. 

It has been said that a teacher should know every- 
thing that his pupils think. You cannot then, attach 
too much importance to the study of human nature. I 
have heard it said, and partly believe it, that one will 
learn human nature faster by teaching a common school 
than in any other way. It has also been said that if a 
man has never felt the workings of a passion in his own 
heart, he is unable to understand what others may say 
about it. Accordingly a person who has never been in 
love cannot fully appreciate what those say who des- 
cant upon that tender passion. It is equally the case 
with anger, fear and all the other passions. So it is 
with a knowledge of school affairs ; a man must experi- 
ence it before he can fully understand what is said 
about school teaching. 

A man may acquire the principles of an art by read- 
ing or observation, but he can never acquire the art it- 



WHAT THE TEACHER SHOULD STUDY. 205 

self. A student in carpentry may study all the works 
on the subject that are within his reach, and all the 
arts and sciences connected with it, yet when he comes 
to work, he will find he is unskilled in the use of the 
saw, the augur, and all other tools. In addition to his- 
theoretical knowledge, he needs practice. So it is with 
the teacher in regard to his profession. Notwithstand- 
ing all this, my advice to the teacher would be to read 
everything that he can get on the subject of teaching. 
He ought also to visit all the schools he can. 

Every man can best work by his own plans, yet every 
teacher can learn something from every other teacher, 
whether that teacher has had much or little experience 
or whether he is a good or a poor teacher. He can 
learn something by visiting a poorly conducted school 
as well as by visiting a well conducted one. From a 
good school he can learn what he should adopt, and 
from a poor one he can learn what he should avoid. 
He can learn from a young teacher by seeing how dif- 
ferently things are done by then visiting and contrast- 
ing them with the experienced methods of an older 
teacher. But he ought all the time to remember that 



206 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

time, work, patience and labor in the school room alone 
can give him, what he really most needs — experience. 

A teacher who is disposed to learn can soon acquire 
much from the transactions which are constantly going 
on around him. School teaching is a science to be ob- 
tained by study, and an art to be acquired by practice. 
We may read ever so much of it but can never attain 
excellence in the science without studying affairs under 
our own control in the school room. In fact, in any 
art, theory is never perfect unless it is accompanied 
and perfected by practice. 

I spoke of reading books on the subject. They are 
not the only things you want to read. You want to 
read men, to study men. The teacher who has a 
knowledge of human nature has ten chances of success, 
where the teacher who has nothing but book knowledge, 
has only one. Human nature, I may say, is, in the 
main, everywhere the same, in all ages, in every clime, 
among all classes, and among those of every age, we 
everywhere find human beings subject to the same pas- 
sions and prejudices and swayed by the same influences. 
If we only knew so much of human beings, that we 



WHAT THE TEACHER SHOULD STUDY. 207 

knew how to allay their passions, how to overcome 
their prejudices, and how to remove their jealousies, we 
could control them well. As the teacher pursues his 
studies in human nature he will learn many things 
about children and also about men that he never be- 
fore thought of. 

He ought, as far as is possible, to find what 
motives prompt pupils to be mischievous, or to disobey. 
He will discover too that these motives are as various 
as the pupils are numerous ; some pupils are so for one 
reason, others for other reasons entirely different ; some 
to annoy the teacher in school, others to boast of it 
when they get out of school ; and others to have some- 
thing to do ; and still others to excite a laugh at some- 
body else's expense. The teacher will find, however, 
that if he pries into the matter, that almost every pu- 
pil has some one motive which generally prompts him 
in all wrong which he does in school. When he has 
learned the nature of a particular pupil thus far, he 
has only to extend his investigations a little farther to 
learn what will best cause that pupil to banish the par- 
ticular motive which moves him to do his evil deeds. 



208 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

A teacher's knowledge of science will often aid him 
in detecting the perpetrators of tricks. For instance, 
his knowledge of the laws of reflection of light will tell 
him when some one by means of a looking-glass or a 
wet slate, is throwing the rays of light over the room 
to the amusement of the pupils and the annoyance of 
the teacher, that it is some one who is sitting where 
the sun shines. Again if he can distinguish the hand 
writing of his pupils and of others it will sometimes be 
an advantage to him. 



LECTURE XIV. 



PUNISHMENT. 

Hitherto we have been considering how to control, 
govern, and manage a school without resorting to pun- 
ishment, and we have said that it is best to do 



so. 



Now we shall devote a talk or two to that important 
subject. I promise here that I shall not enter upon an 
elaborate discussion of the subject, but shall present 
you a few thoughts as they have occurred to me in my 
own experience. Indeed I shall avoid, as much as pos- 
sible, all debatable questions on this much debated 
subject. I suppose that no one will despute that there 
must be order in school, and that there may be order 
that there must be government, and that where there 
is government there must be punishment of some kind 
or another. Government implies law, law implies pun- 
ishment. Where there is no punishment, there is na 
law and where there is no law there is no order. 



210 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

A teacher must exercise legislative, executive and 
judicial power ; that is he must be at one and the same 
time governor, law maker, and judge. He must, in his 
capacity as governor, execute and apply the law, and in 
his capacity as legislator must make it ; and in his ca- 
pacity as judge must expound it. He is an absolute 
•despot ; his decree is final ; there is no appeal from it. 
If there could be it would undermine his authority. 

A school may be likened to an army, in that it will 
not govern itself; in fact it cannot, like a republic or a 
democracy, govern itself; self government would be 
fatal to its institution. There must be one mind, one 
will, in which centers all power. Who ever heard of 
«uch a thing as an army of men falling into line and 
■assuming a military appearance and attitude without 
-command, and that such a command too, that the in- 
dividuals of the army knew they would not dare to dis- 
obey ? The army must be well drilled too before the 
soldiers will fall into line properly, and they must have 
respect for their officers and confidence in them before 
they will endure any hardship, fatigue, self-denial or 
danger. 



PUNISHMENT. 211 



Just SO it is with pupils in the school room. They 
will not obey unless they know they must. They must 
be trained to obey ; they must have respect for their 
teachers and confidence in them. For very few pupils 
will confine themselves to one seat, deprive themselves 
of the privilege of talking and moving about, to say 
nothing of applying themselves to such hard, irksome 
work as study is to most of them, without something 
to stimulate them to do so. They may even know that 
it is to their advantage to deprive themselves of these 
pleasures, but the temptations around them are too 
great to be resisted. 

Nevertheless the example of those around us has 
much to do in inciting us to study or work. So that 
if even a few are doing their duty, it is a help to the 
teacher in the government of the school. On the other 
hand those who are careless and those who misbehave 
have their influence upon those who desire to learn. 
It has been truly said that a bad man can much more 
easily make bad men of his associates than a good man 
can make good men of his associates. 

Punishment or penalties are never intended as an 
equivalent or compensation for the commission of the 



212 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

oifense, but are that degree of pain or inconvenience 
which are supposed to be sufficient to deter pupils from 
introducing that greater degree of inconvenience which 
would result to the whole school from the general per- 
mission of the act which the necessary regulations for- 
bid. It is no recompense to the teacher or to the 
school for the consequences of the violation of a rule 
that the offending pupil should afterwards be whipped 
or expelled. It is only for the prevention of future 
oflPences that punishments are inflicted. 

All punishment, says an elegant and accurate writer, 
is for the purpose of example, prevention, or reforma- 
tion, — that is for the purpose of preventing crime again 
by the same or some other ofi"ender, or for the reformation 
of the criminal or for example to others. All these 
purposes are served by the different kinds of punish- 
ment used in the school room. Punishments which are 
given privately are for the reformation of the pupil 
punished ; those inflicted before the class or the whole 
school are for example to others as well as for the refor- 
mation of the one punished. Expulsion or suspension 
is for the prevention of the crime by the pupil expelled 
or suspended as well as for example to others. 



PUNISHMENT. 213 



We have so far been considering the nature of pun- 
ishment, but will now direct our attention, for a short 
time, to the mode of applying it. When a pupil has 
violated some rule it is very often much better policy 
to speak to him or reprimand or punish him privately, 
than to do so before the whole school, or before his 
class. Very often a pupil is hardened by a reprimand 
or punishment given in the presence of his classmates 
or schoolmates. They sympathize with their fellow pu- 
pil and will tell him that he is right and that the teacher 
is wrong and is real mean for talking to him so or for 
punishing him. Whereas if the teacher speaks 
in private directly to the offending pupil, or 
punishes him when there is no one by, the pupil is 
more apt to think and feel that the teacher is right and 
that he himself is wrong. Besides there will be no 
other pupils to gather around him, take him by the 
arms, and pat him on the back. Pupils privately rep- 
rimanded or punished by the teacher, will seldom tell 
their companions of it. Every person knows that pu- 
pils have much more feeling for each other than they 
have for the teacher, at least until the teacher has 



214: SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

gained their good will and respect. There may be ex- 
ceptions to this in some cases in regard to a pupil who 
is not very well liked, or if the teacher was well known 
by his pupils before he began the term of school and 
was a general favorite the above remarks may not so 
generally apply. 

In corroboration of what I have said I will refer to 
the truth which has almost become a maxim, that re- 
marks made to an assemblage of persons are almost always 
lost, but if made to an individual have their full effect. 
If one addresses a large crowd each person hearing the 
address does not take home to himself the advice or 
criticism as if he were the only hearer. He either 
thinks that it entirely applies to his neighbor or if to 
himself, he consoles himself that it applies to others 
likewise. If a pupil is alone with the teacher he knows 
what is said to him all applies to himself, and if he is 
thus punished privately he solaces himself with the fact 
that he is not used as an example to others. 

All men are apt to think that there is some reason 
for excusing themselves when they do wrong and that 
they are not the worst persons in the world. It is al- 



PUNISHMENT. 215 



most universally true that a man who commits a crime 
thinks there is some excuse because it is he and that 
he ought not to be punished, or if he is punished it 
ought not to be so severe as if it were some one else 
who had committed the crime. He looks at the causes 
which led him to commit the crime as mitigating cir- 
cumstances. Whereas if some one else had committed 
the same crime he would not know the circumstances 
under which it was committed, and would very likely 
be as clamorous for punishment as the public usually 
are. This is the nature of most men. We are all 
prone to find excuses for ourselves even while condemn- 
ing others. 

This applies in school with redoubled force. When 
a boy is accused of any wrong he very generally tries 
to justify himself by accusing some one else of doing 
the same thing that he did. I think that a teacher 
may show the boy how inconsistent he is by askinpj 
him, "Why did you not tell me before?" or, "Why do 
you tell me now?" or, "Does that screen you because 
somebody else did it?" 

A school boy will play a trick and think that he 
ought not to be punished because of this or that or 



216 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

some other reason. It is even so with men in their 
opinions. They will embrace a doctrine or form an 
opinion without examining it in all its details. After 
having done so, they will, to sustain it, bring every ar- 
gument to bear which their skill, knowledge and inge- 
nuity can discover or invent. A boy will whisper to 
another about the lesson or ask for a pencil, or a slate- 
rag and think himself not only excusable but justifia- 
ble. He does not know, or does not think, that such 
•conduct in all the pupils in the room would subvert all 
regulations in regard to whispering. So it is with men 
as well as pupils in school, in regard to every vice and 
crime. 

In cases of this kind, if I may so be allowed to ex- 
press myself, there is always equity in every rule. 
When a teacher investigates a case and learns all the 
facts in regard to it, he will also learn the circum- 
stances which ought to mitigate the punishment or en- 
tirely excuse it. 

School punishments may be divided into two kinds ; 
first that kind which deprives the pupil of some priv- 
ilege ; second, bodily or mental affliction. In a certain 



PUNISHMENT. 217 



sense every punishment may be regarded as a mental 
punishment, but there are some that are peculiarly so, 
because they only hurt the feelings of the recipient. 
Among the latter are reproofs and reprimands, whether 
administered in public or private. Some pupils have 
so little self-respect that this kind of punishment avails 
but little. Some pupils will desist at a mere word, 
they even consider being spoken to as a punishment. 
Indeed mere detection in doing a wrong will be suf- 
ficient punishment for some. For example, I see two 
boys whisper, I tell them not to do so again. One of 
them does not whisper again, or at least for several 
days ; the, other, as soon as I take my eyes off of him 
does. Here it is very readily seen that a word suffices 
to cause one to quit whispering, whereas the other will 
not until some severe punishment is inflicted upon him. 
The one who offends a second time may again and again 
be told not to whisper, but still he persists and whis- 
pers whenever he feels like saying something. More- 
over, his respect for the teacher's word decreases at each 
time that he is spoken to. After thus going along for 
some time it takes a much harder punishment and 



218 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



much more perseverancej if it can be done at all, to 
prevent that pupil's practicing such a school vice. It 
is then evident that, to such a pupil, simple reproof will, 
instead of being a benefit, be a decided injury. 
Besides it will be injurious to the whole school. If a 
teacher earnestly desires to break up the vicious habit 
of whispering in such a pupil as the one last mention- 
ed, he must inflict some severer punishment than reproof. 
Perhaps changing the pupil to another seat or desk, or 
keeping him in at recess or after school may have the 
desired effect. I may also here say, that if you at any 
time inflict a punishment which does not accomplish 
its purpose, then you, as a general rule, will have good 
reason to think that it should have been severer, or 
should have been of some other kind. 

What to do in a difficult case, will very often depend 
upon the time, the place, the offense, the character and 
disposition of the child, and also at times, in some 
degree, upon the temper, dispoistion and intelligence of 
the parents ; it may also depend upon the condition 
which the school is in. Sometimes mild means may be 
best, at other times the severest corpoml punishment. It 



PUNISHMENT. 219 



is a fact to be taken into consideration that a mere word, 
nay a look, from the teacher, is a greater punishment 
to some pupils than the hardest whipping is to others. 
A modest unassuming girl may be more seriously hurt 
by a disapproving nod than a bold forward boy is by 
the most brutal chastisement. Though the one is 
merely a mental suiFerer. John may be more greatly 
punished and thereby more restrained from future of- 
fenses by merely being spoken to, than James is by an 
application of the rod. Still James may be more great- 
ly punished by being made to stay in at recess, and 
thus deprived of his play time. Some pupils can be 
more easily managed by letting their parents know how 
they are behaving ; others by merely taking them aside 
and kindly talking to them. 

Very often the character of the deed done may de- 
termine the kind of punishment which is proper. A 
boy who abuses his recess by fighting or swearing dur- 
ing that time may be entirely prohibited from doing 
these acts by not allowing him to have any recess. 
One who is slow about coming in when school is called 
may generally be effectually cured of this fault by dis- 



220 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

missing him last, or among the last, for a few days or 
weeks. I may here say that such punishments as keep- 
ing pupils in at recess or depriving them of some other 
privilege has upon many pupils a better effect than any 
other punishment. 

I believe that it is the nature of most children to do 
things in order to enjoy some privilege rather than to 
avoid a penalty. Men will act or not act, as the case 
may be, rather to enjoy some advantage than to avert 
an evil unless that evil is very pressing. Depriving 
pupils of some privilege which they esteem very highly 
is to most the severest punishment that can be 
inflicted upon them. It then becomes a matter of 
self-interest to them to behave well. The large 
majority of men so live that they may enjoy riches or 
something else that is coveted, while it is perhaps only 
a small minority which lives justly from the fears and 
penalties of the law. Children are in this respect just 
like men. In fict they are only miniature men. Their 
natures are the same. The likes and dislikes of boy- 
hood are only intensified or softened when the boy puts 
on the robes of a man ; he is not very often changed in 



PUNISHMENT. 221 



character, only in degree. It has been said what a 
person is when he is a boy he will, in a greater or less 
degree, be when he becomes a man. This may not al- 
ways be the case but the exception (as the saying goes) 
only proves the rule. 

I would not always say what punishment I would 
inflict for an offense. There is often much gained by 
holding an uncertain punishment before the vicious. 
There is no doubt that many a crime may be prevented 
by the mere terror that the punishment is uncertain. 
The offenders do not know what is coming, and on that 
account, do not venture to do their evil deeds. Where- 
as if they knew the exact punishment they would brace 
themselves for it and screw their courage up to the 
point of doing the forbidden act. 

For the first offense I would only inflict a slight 
punishment, but if the act were done again in the same 
manner by the same offender, I would make the pun- 
ishment more and more severe until I found some pun- 
ishment that would cause the pupil to desist from vio- 
lating the rule on that point. Sometimes a mere word, 
at other times merely calling the attention of the pupil 



222 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

to what he is doing, may suffice. Some pupils may not 
be conscious what they are doing, others may not think 
that that which they are doing is wrong, and by a mere 
shake of the head on the part of the teacher, will de- 
sist and never be guilty of that deed again. 

I have seen a pupil, who, when going to his desk 
from the recitation, would thump each desk as he 
passed it. Now his mind may have been very intent 
on the lesson just recited or busy on some other im- 
portant subject, and he may not have known that it 
was annoying either to the teacher or pupils and con- 
sequently did not think it wrong. Though I am not 
a very great advocate of merely speaking to pupils in 
order to have them correct any impropriety or irregu- 
larity, yet I would in this case, first have called the at- 
tention of the pupil to what he was doing, and have 
told him that I would rather that he would not do so. 
Then afterwards if he did the same thing again, I 
would perhaps have made him walk back to the recita- 
tion seat and then have sent him to his desk. So I 
would have increased the punishment until it caused 
him to walk to his seat without making the unnecessa- 
ry noise mentioned. 



PUNISHMENT, 223 



Again if a boy is in the habit of spitting on the floor, 
I would first call his attention to it. Then if this did 
no good, I would tell him to get the broom and clean 
it up. After which if he still continued to spit on the 
floor, I would make him wipe it up with a piece of pa- 
per. Then if he still persisted I would punish him in 
addition to making him wipe it up. 

Every means possible should be resorted to before 
corporal punishment is inflicted. But in my opinion 
it is better to inflict corporal punishment than to expel 
a pupil. Expulsion is in school jurisprudence what 
capital punishment is in municipal jurisprudence. It 
entirely disposes of the ofi'ender just as hanging disposes 
of the traitor or murderer. By hanging or shooting 
the criminal, the world is forever freed from his com- 
mitting any more crimes ; so in school by the expulsion 
of the offender the school is thereafter delivered from 
his annoyances and hindrances. 

There is one fact to consider in this connection, which 
is that a pupil may very often be restrained from doing 
an act by again and again inflicting the same punish- 
ment. If punishment is sure it is much more eff"ectual 



224 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

than if it is severe and not so sure. If every possible 
crime could be found out and punished it would very- 
much lessen the amount of crime. If a pupil is pun- 
ished for every violation or infringement of the rules 
he will sooner or later think that he cannot do any- 
thing wrong without being punished and will begin to 
consider whether he ought to do the wrong. 

Every one who commits a crime, be he a tricky pu- 
pil in school, or a vagabond at large, considers first 
whether he can escape being detected, and secondly, if 
detected, whether he can escape punishment. If he 
thinks there is a chance of escaping detection, or if he 
is detected, a chance of escaping punishment, he com- 
mits the crime, otherwise, he does not. Men do not 
rush rashly into crime ; they usually have it under 
contemplation some time. I do not mean to say that 
persons do not sometimes do things without mature de- 
liberation. For they do, and are guilty of acts which 
they would not be if they had deliberated more. 

It is the deliberation and wilful perpetration that 
make any act a crime ; a man may even kill another 
without being guilty of a crime, the act being either 



PUNISHMENT. 225 



justifiable or excusable : justifiable when done in self 
defense : excusable when done by accident. So with a 
pupil in school, the intention is always to be looked at.. 
But if a pupil does anything unintentionally, which 
annoys the teacher, or disturbs the school, it has the 
same eiFect and does the same harm, as if it were in- 
tentional. 

What the teacher should do in a case of this kind, 
whether to inflict punishment or not, is sometimes very 
difficult to determine. If the pupil is in the habit of 
doing little things unconsciously, the teacher should by 
all means do all he can to correct the habit as soon as 
he discovers it. I may here throw in a parenthetical 
remark that a teacher should all the time, as far as he 
can, correct all bad and uncouth habits which any of 
his pupils may have fallen into. The pupil does an act 
without thinking and on that account he has not really 
done any wrong, he is not guilty, still his acts have 
caused disturbance, annoyance or confusion in the 
school. But the fact that the pupil does not think 
what he is doing, is a sufficient reason to call for some 
animadversion on the part of the teacher. 



226 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Pupils very often do little things which are not in- 
tended to be annoying, nevertheless they are very much 
so. As I have said they ought not to be allowed to 
get into the habit of doing things listlessly and 
thoughtlessly. They ought to be taught that they 
:should think before they act ; that they should always 
be conscious of what they are doing. Of course these 
pupils may be entirely innocent of any evil intention ; 
they may not have intended to do what they did do ; 
but then the acts are on this account no less annoying. 

Pupils should be trained that they are responsible 
for all they do. When they get into the habit of do- 
ing things without knowing what they are doing, it is 
high time that the teacher should break them of that 
■habit. I may here add that when a teacher has once 
told a pupil not to do a certain thing again, doing the 
thing then becomes a positive violation. 

As I have a minutes' time I will add an additional 
thought upon one of the topics, touched upon in this 
lecture. Pupils, you all know, consider every avenue 
of escape when they are about to do a wrong. They 
first consider whether they can escape detection, after- 



PUNISHMENT. 227 



wards if they think they can escape detection, they 
consider whether they can escape punishment. They 
are not very apt to do anything in which they know 
they will be detected and for which they know they 
will be punished. On the contrary they will commit 
crimes with impunity, even if they are detected if they 
know they will not be punished. 

When more than a proper degree of punish- 
ment has been inflicted upon a pupil, he, instead 
of being sorry for the wrong which he has 
done, will begin to entertain feelings of resentment 
towards the teacher. Moreover the minds of the pupils, 
his parents, and the people of the community, will be 
incensed against him. It is often a question with the 
teacher how much punishment is proper. More than 
that is injustice ; less fails to accomplish its purpose. 
What I have now said must be understood as having 
some exceptions. There are pupils who think they are 
wronged even when the most even handed justice is 
dealt out to them. Most pupils, however, when prop- 
erly punished will feel that it is just, and a frank pupil 
will say so at the time ; others not so frank will after- 
wards acknowledge it. 



228 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

I believe that I said that I would not discuss any of 
the disputed points on this subject, but will here throw 
in a few remarks on the subject of corporal punishment. 
By abolishing corporal punishment those who are most 
hardened will entirely escape punishment. For there 
is no punishment for a very abandoned or hardened 
person except that which he feels in his body. He 
has no conscience, his feelings are blunted ; how then 
can he be reached except by the infliction of pain upon 
his body ? This kind of pupil is the very one which 
causes most troubles in our schools. 

Some pupils do not at all care for being kept 
in or talked to. In fact these things are only 
sport for them. The teacher who uses such punish- 
ments, will be called a milk and water man, ar),d will be 
laughed at for his sickly, puny attempts to govern 
them. Such being the case, what will he do but dis- 
miss them from school, as the only means of preventing 
their misdemeanors? Many pupils when they learn 
that expulsion or dismission will be the punishment, 
will be unruly on purpose to get dismissed from school. 
They do not want to go to school and are sure to do 



PUNISHMENT. 229 



something in order to get expelled. How much better 
is it to punish such pupils and thus compel them to 
behave than to give them an excuse to misbehave on 
purpose to be expelled from school ! It is always bet- 
ter to keep pupils in school to train them to habits of 
study and obedience, than to expel them to take lessons 
in vice and crime upon the streets. 



LECTURE XV, 



THINGS TEACHERS OUGHT TO KNOW. 

Teachers sometimes think that they ought not to 
call the attention of pupils to some things that they 
may be doing. This I think is a mistake on the part 
of the teacher. He ought to do so if for no other 
reason than to let the pupils know that he knows all 
that is going on in the room. For instance, a pupil 
whispers the word "sponge" to his seat-mate, meaning 
thereby that he wants to borrow his sponge. The 
teacher ought to call attention to the matter and tell 
the pupil that it is as bad to say one word as it is to say a 
dozen. In fact I would in this case inflict some slight 
punishment. 

Sometimes by leaving an act unreproved or unpun- 
ished, a teacher may create among other pupils the im- 
pression that the act is not forbidden. Then those who 
would otherwise not do so may be led to do things which 



THINGS TEACHERS OUGHT TO KNOW. 231 

they had seen others do without correction, and conse- 
quently thought not wrong. We all know very well 
that they will do what they see their fellow-pupils are- 
allowed to do. Then I think it much better to put a 
veto upon the very first little thing which the teacher- 
thinks ought not to be permitted in school. 

It is much better to stop an evil in its beginnings 
than to let it go until it has assumed great proportions 
and then try to stop it. And you may be certain that 
anything in school will assume giant proportions if it 
is only let alone. It takes no care or cultivation ta 
make a little leak a great one. Any little school evil 
will soon become a great one. Whispering if allowed 
and not at all curbed, will soon become talking, and 
that, if not checked, will certainly become hallooing. 

When a pupil once learns that a teacher does not 
like to reprove him for a certain act, that pupil will af- 
terwards frequently be guilty of that act ; and not only 
he but others also. They will likewise be found guilty 
of other little peccadilloes to see whether they cannot 
discover something else for which the teacher will hate 
to punish them. Then as I have before intimated 



232 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

there is but a step to something else and so on until 
the teacher's authority is but an empty show. 

Many teachers too often see pupils doing things they 
ought not to do and merely tell them not to do so 
again. This may answer the teacher's purpose a few 
times, but the better plan would be to make them con- 
form to system, and to have them do everything just 
as he thinks it ought to be done. For example, a pu- 
pil leaves his seat without permission, the teacher in- 
stead of telling him not to do so again without asking 
leave, ought to make him go back to his seat and there 
ask and obtain permission. Again when a class is 
called up to recite, if a boy rises up before the proper 
time or steps out of his place, instead of telling him not 
to do so again, the teacher ought to tell him to take 
his seat or his place and come out in the proper man- 
ner and at the proper time. 

We must all take into consideration that children 
think and that they think much more than older per- 
sons suppose they do. They observe and draw conclu- 
sions too from everything he says or does. They will 
interpret his language in accordance with its true im- 



THINGS TEACHERS OUGHT TO KNOW. 233 

port rather than understand anj^ effected meaning he 
may wish to convey. They will soon learn their teach- 
er. They want to know how far he will let them go 
in their own purposes. They do little things the first 
few days in order to learn how much privilege he will 
give them or how rigid he will be. 

If at any time during the first part of the term of 
school they see that he is lax in his discipline a few 
times they will conclude that he will often be so. Pu- 
pils always notice when he is negligent or careless and 
when he is "cross," as they say. They will throw out 
what may be called "feelers," that is they will do little 
deeds merely for the purpose of seeing whether the 
teacher will notice them. If he does not do so, they 
will go further and further until they are checked or 
until all is chaos. 

There is no limit to which pupils in school will carry 
their aggressions, if they are permitted to do so. When 
a pupil once does anything in violation of a rule, the 
teacher will be sadly mistaken if he lets the offence 
pass, thinking that the pupil will do so no more. For 



234 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



he will be guilty of the same evil deeds frequently and 
will play the same tricks oftener and oftener every day. 

Every teacher may be sure too that many pupils will 
take advantage of every weakness he may have. The 
teacher who is in the habit of forgetting things, will 
soon find his pupils taking advantage of his defective 
memory in many ways. They will tell him and make 
him believe too, that he has said or done so and so, 
when he has said or done nothing of the kind. Of 
course this will only take place in extreme cases. 

The teacher who has faults or weaknesses which be- 
come apparent in the school room will be sure to find 
that his pupils will soon be forming little conspiracies 
to take advantage of his fault or weakness. If he is in 
the habit of going into abstractions, or in other words 
into the abstract state of mind, he may rest assured 
that some of his pupils will play such tricks as throw- 
ing paper balls across the room, or even boxing each 
Other's ears right under his very eyes. They know by 
his appearance and actions that he is not thinking of 
what is going on around him. but is perhaps studying 
how to solve a difficult problem, or how to analyze a 



THINGS TEACHERS OUGHT TO KNOW. 235 

difficult sentence, or parse a difficult word. His pupils 
when they have once learned that this is the case, will 
go further and give him difficult questions and hard 
problems merely for the purpose of thus intensely en- 
gaging his mind so that they can play their pranks. I 
believe in intense application of the mind, but think 
that the school room is not the place for a teacher to 
exercise it. He ought to know all his lessons so well 
that he will not need to exercise hard study in the 
presence of the school. If he has any difficult ques- 
tions he ought to solve them before he goes into the school 
room. Absent mindedness before the school ought 
especially to be guarded against. The teacher wants 
that state of mind which perceives all and knows all 
that is going on around him. 

A teacher should so train himself that when he is 
intently studying any subject or is reading, his eye will 
catch any unusual motion made by any pupil before 
him. You have perhaps noticed that at times when 
you had been studying very diligently that you imme- 
diately observed any unusual thing that took place in 
your presence, though your eyes were not turned di- 



236 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



rectly upon the object that drew your minds away but 
when your eyes were directed toward the book or other 
object upon which your thoughts were engaged. As 
it is with the eye, so it is with the ear. If any sound 
to which we are unaccustomed strikes our ears we im- 
mediately turn our attention to it, the mind leaving 
the train of thought it had been following when it was 
arrested by the sound heard by the ear. It makes no 
difference how busily we may be engaged, let any- 
thing arrest the attention, the mind is immediately 
transferred, so to speak, to the object disturbing it. 

From these facts we may draw the conclusion that 
the teacher should have his school in such a condition 
and himself so trained, that if anything unusual takes 
place, something that ought not to take place in the 
school room, will be unusual, and, on that account, 
will draw his mind from that with which it is engaged 
to that which at that moment demands his attention. 
For this reason every teacher needs a quick ear and an 
ever piercing eye. If he once gets into the habit of 
repressing all confusion, disorder and everything else 
that is improper in school, he will not when any confu- 



THINGS TEACHERS OUGHT TO KNOW. 237 

sion or disorder arises in the room, feel satisfied with 
himself unless he represses it. Every one can so train 
himself that when anything goes wrong in school, that 
he will immediately feel it and will want to make it 
right. This should become a habit. 

You can now, perhaps, realize some more of the 
reasons why I have so earnestly urged all teachers to 
begin well and keep constantly just such schools as 
they all the time want. You can train your eyes and 
ears that they will not fail to tell you when there is 
anything wrong. You can train your eyes and ears as 
well as artists and musicians can, or as machinists and 
mechanics can their hands and fingers. 

There is a natural impulse in almost- every human 
being to finish what is begun before beginning or doing 
anything else, however necessary or important it may 
be to begin to do it forthwith. This propensity, 
though planted in the breast of man for a noble pur- 
pose, sometimes causes young teachers to be less vigil- 
ant than they ought to be. When a teacher takes 
charge of a school in which the pupils have been very 
naughty and unruly under his predecessor, the propen- 



238 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

sity we have just mentioned, will work great injury 
unless it is especially guarded against. For instance, 
when a teacher is reading, he does not want to look up 
until he has finished the sentence, or it may be the 
whole paragraph. Again, when he is writing copies, 
he does not want to attend to any other duty until he 
has finished the word or the entire copy. So it is 
when he is at the black-board solving or explaining a 
problem ; and it is the same with many other duties of 
the school room, although he may be conscious that all 
is not right among the pupils. 

It may be said that a teacher should have his pupils 
so trained that they will not misbehave when the teach- 
er is busily engaged, or when his back is turned. I 
acknowledge all that. But will answer that this is one 
of the ways to train them. For you all know that 
there are always some who will take advantage of any- 
thing and everything to play tricks, to whisper, to 
throw a chewed paper ball at some one, up to the ceiling 
across the room, or to do something that is not becom- 
ing. They are even watching for such an opportunity. 
And when it comes they seem to be seized with an im- 



THINGS TEACHERS OUGHT TO KNOW. 239 

pulse almost irresistble, to do something to annoy the 
teacher, to make their fellow-pupils laugh, or that they 
may afterwards boast of what they have done at school. 
They think it "cute." Pupils will soon learn to take 
advantage of the propensity to which we alluded just a 
few minutes ago. They will also, at the same time, 
learn when and in what direction to direct their efforts. 
Every teacher will quickly learn that there are but 
few who demand his constant attention. When speak- 
ing of the manner in which pupils should be seated we 
intimated how to dispose of this few. In almost every 
school the pupils can be divided into two classes ; one 
consisting of those with whom the teacher will never, 
or very seldom, have any trouble ; the other consisting 
of those to whom almost every difficulty may be traced. 
The first class go to school with the intention of be- 
having, the other class go not knowing exactly what 
they will do, whether they will behave or not. They 
wait for developments ; they wait to see what kind of 
a teacher they will have to deal with. The second 
class can generally be subdivided into those who will 
conduct themselves properly if the teacher has the 



240 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

proper restraints placed upon them, and those with 
whom the teacher will have nearly all his difficulties. 
But you may be assured that the first class of this sub- 
division will readily join the second if they see that 
there is any prospect for a successful termination to 
their alliance. 

Almost every teacher will find that there are only a 
few who require his constant attention. In fact in al- 
most every school there is only one or two who may be 
regarded as the prime movers of almost every disturb- 
ance or wilful annoyance. True it is that there are 
some who do little things now and then for reasons 
that seem almost unaccountable. 

Teachers will also find another kind of pupils who are 
not at all troublesome to govern but are exceedingly 
annoying in another respect. They are those who 
are always behind. They seem to have a constitu- 
tional preference for being behind. When a class 
is called out to recite, they are not ready, having 
something to do before they leave their seats, such as 
hunting their pencils, putting away their books, or 
slates, or doing something else which hinders the com- 



THINGS TEACHERS OUGHT TO KNOW. 241 

ing of the class, and thereby annoy the teacher and 
the whole school. It makes but little diffierence how 
much time you give their classes to get ready, when 
the time is up they are still behind. If you again 
lengthen the time for the class to get ready it will only 
be a few days until they are again behind time. You 
will find some of this kind in every school. They are 
not only behind in school, but everywhere, in their 
play and in their work. They seem to be behind in 
becoming men, behind in life, behind in business, be- 
hind the times and behind their neighbors in prosperity 
and success. I have resorted to various expedients to 
cause these pupils to be prompt. A friend of mine 
who has taught longer than I have, says that he has 
had best success in making this class of pupils prompt 
by ridiculing them for their slowness. 



LECTURE XVL 



MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS, 

The teacher's real business, as I have several times 
said, is to teach, yet the primary object seems to be to 
preserve good order. This really is only the secondary 
object. Yet it is of primary importance, because the 
real object cannot be attained without the concurrence 
of sufl&cient order. 

I may, however, in this connection say that the 
teacher's occupation has a double object in view; one 
is to train the pupils mind, the other is to prepare him 
to become a citizen when he arrives at manhood fit- 
ted for the many duties of citizenship. The latter 
object he can best attain by teaching the pupil that he 
must obey all lawful commands of his superiors in au- 
thority. In our country where the republic is sus- 
tained by the good will and intelligence of its citizens, 



MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS. 243 

too much attention cannot be paid to training the 
young and getting them into the habit of obedience to 
law, and attention to duty. Then we see another im- 
portant reason why the teacher should have all his af- 
fairs so adjusted that there can be no cavil, no dispute 
whether a certain act is right or wrong. How many 
of our criminals condemned to the scaffold or the State's 
prison, have begun their downward course of vice and 
crime by disobedience and idleness in the school room, 
can perhaps never be told. Yet I have no doubt that 
thousands have either directly or indirectly been made 
the hardened creatures they have become by those who 
were employed to instruct them in the arts and scien- 
ces and to make them better. I may here add that 
too little attention has heretofore been directed to the 
fact, that in our schools, the future citizens of our land 
are, in a great degree, trained for the duties they are 
to assume as voters ; yea, the rulers, of this great com- 
monwealth. With most of the pupils of our schools, a 
common school education is the only training they 
ever get. 

The teacher ought also to consider that he is, in a 



244 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

great degree, responsible for the moral as well as the 
mental training of his pupils. He can train them to 
think that swearing, fighting, lying, stealing and cheat- 
ing are all wrong. All these, I may say, are, at times, 
committed at school. By showing how wrong and 
wicked such things are, and by holding them up as 
great crimes he can make a lasting impression upon the 
minds of his pupils while they are young and tender. 
By doing so he will very likely not only prevent such 
things in his school but will go far towards preventing 
them in their after lives. 

Taking these facts into view, we cannot attach too 
much importance to the vocation of the teacher. He 
cannot do too much to make the school attractive, in- 
teresting, and entertaining. When I am asked how I 
would make a school attractive and interesting, I can 
not tell you how I would do so. Yet I may say there 
are a thousand ways. In the first place a school is 
made attractive by being systematic. Pupils naturally 
love order and system, and just as naturally dislike dis- 
order and confusion. The very pupil who creates most 
disorder and confusion in the school room will like the 



MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS. 245 

school best when it is orderly and quiet. Therefore a 
teacher can do much to make a school attractive by 
systematic arrangements and an orderly and quiet dis- 
position of matters therein. 

Children are proud of a good school just as they are 
ashamed of a poor one. So if you can get your pupils 
to think that you have one of the best schools in the 
country, and can make them feel proud of it, many of 
them will frown down and often prevent whatever they 
see wrong in others. This will especially be the case 
with many of the older and better class of pupils. 
Whereas if they are disgusted with the government of 
the school, many of them will do little wrong things 
merely because they are disgusted. I may here add 
that many teachers accomplish much in governing their 
schools by causing the pupils to think that the school 
is theirs not his, that if there is any disorder or mean- 
ness it is they who are guilty and the blame must rest 
upon them. 

There is nothing like having a school room neat and 
clean, I might even say, tidy and cozy. Pictures and 
flowers have a mellowing influence upon pupils, as well 



246 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

as upon older folks. No one can tell how much a pic- 
ture or a bouquet cheers a little child when it looks up, 
it may be after studying very intently for awhile. An- 
other one of the essentials in a school room, as well as 
everywhere else, is neatness. 

Again, the teacher's demeanor and deportment have 
much to do in making a school attractive and enter- 
taining. No one loves a snappish, childish, snarly per- 
son. Especially do children not love such a person, 
when that person is their teacher. Much can be gained 
by being pleasant and having a good word for every 
one at the proper time. The teacher ought always to 
have a smile and an approving look for every good ac- 
tion done by a pupil. 

It is said that the years seem twice as long to us at 
ten years of age as they do at twenty, three times as 
long as at thirty, four times as long as at forty, and so 
on with each ten years of life. I know that when I 
was very young, it seemed almost an age from one 
Christmas till another, but the passing of each succeed- 
ing year seems to shorten the length of the years. As 
it is with the years so it is with the hours. An hour 



MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS. 24T 

seems much longer to a child than it does to a grown 
up man. So to a man who is awaiting the happening 
of any event, an hour seems much longer than at any 
other time. Every one who has waited any length of 
time at a station for a railroad train can tell you this. 

Now the child in school is like a man at a depot 
waiting for a train, he is anxiously wishing for the time 
to come when school will dismiss; this makes it 
seem very long to him, — much longer in fact than if 
he were not waiting for recess or for school to close. 
Again, the pupils expect to play as soon as school is 
out, and of course are also anxious for the time to pass 
on that account. Even older persons, when expecting 
some pleasant time, think it passes much slower than 
under other circumstances. 

Any one who is busy does not notice the flight of 
time, when one's mind is constantly engaged it seems 
very short. We sometimes say when we are enjoying 
a pleasant affair, or when we are having a good time, it 
does not seem to last long. To a child an hour of play 
does not seem half as long as an hour of study or con- 
finement in school. In play the minutes seem to flit 



'248 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

rapidly away ; while in study, to children, they seem to 
>drag slowly and heavily along. 

I have before remarked that keeping pupils busy is 
the best means of governing them. When any one is 
busy, he is not in any way troublesome to any other 
person. Many teachers, knowing this fact, think that 
it is better to give long lessons in order that they may 
thus keep their pupils busy and out of mischief This, 
in my opinion, is a gross mistake. Another mistake 
made by many who want to keep pupils busy, is giving 
them too many studies. The true plan is to give your 
pupils lessons of the proper length, and require them 
to get them thoroughly. Then by a system of exact- 
ing recitations, give them to understand that you will 
accept nothing but a perfect lesson. But as this sub- 
ject is not entirely within the outline of this course 
of lectures, I will desist from saying further on it here. 

Many pupils have acquired a dislike for school be- 
cause they have nothing to do which is interesting to 
them. Then he who makes a school interesting de- 
serves the thanks, not only of those under his charge, 



THINGS TEACHERS OUGHT TO KNOW. 249 

but also of their parents and the future citizens and 
rulers of the land. 

I may here say, too that many children acquire their 
habits at their homes before they are sent to school. 
Favoritism cannot so readily be shown at school. On 
the other hand, many a child who was well behaved at 
home, has been ruined at school. School was so unin- 
teresting to him that he got a dislike to it. He en- 
deavored to stay away from it as much as his parents 
would allow, while he was yet too young and innocent 
to play truant, then when he became hardened enough, 
he played truant to keep out of school. School was 
nothing else than a punishment to him, it was in fact, 
a prison to him, which he avoided as much as possible, 
by honorable means as long as he had any honor left^ 
but as soon as he lost his honor in this matter, he re- 
sorted to dishonorable means in every way he thought 
he would not be detected. School was irksome to him, 
it was a dull, prosy routine, in which he could see but 
little or no use. He learned to dread it because it had 
no attractions; he learned to hate it because it re- 
strained him. Now, if a spark of interest can be ex- 



250 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



cited in the breast of such a pupil, he may be saved 
from the gallows or State's prison, and instead of be- 
coming a lasting disgrace, may become a comfort to his 
friends and an ornament to the community in which 
he lives. 

It is well to make the change between home and 
school as slight as may be. This should especially be 
the case with children who have never attended school. 
The reason is that the pupils may not become tired of 
school and long to be at home. The young pupil 
should be lead from play to study as gently and grad- 
ually as his age, health, disposition and habits will per- 
mit. So that he may not so early in life become dis- 
gusted or restless under the restraints of school. Be- 
sides study should be made as much like play as it is 
possible to make it. A child should have a slate and 
pencil instead of a book when he first starts to school. 
With a slate and pencil a good teacher can so teach a 
very young child that he will while away many an 
hour in useful work, such as writing and drawing pic- 
tures which would, if he had nothing but a book, be 
needlessly and injuriously spent. If a child can keep 



THINGS TEACHERS OUGHT TO KNOW. 251 



its hands and fingers busy, time will pass much more 
rapidly. This it can do with a slate. Whereas if it 
has nothing but a book, if it wants to do any good, it 
must chain itself down to study almost without moving 
a muscle. 

There is much gained by keeping the interest of the 
school alive. A teacher who can fire up and keep 
ablaze an earnest enthusiasm will not have half the 
trouble to govern his school that one will who cannot 
kindle up that burning flame. He who can awaken in 
the minds of the young who are in his care a thirst for 
knowledge, will be doing much and will be going far 
in the way to govern them well. A desire to learn 
will then be uppermost in their minds, and as a matter 
of course they will not have time to think of mischief, 
of playing tricks or forming conspiracies. They will 
also then begin to think it is beneath their dignity to 
do anything contrary to the teacher's will. It is the 
teacher's legitimate occupation to teach the pupils of 
his school and to get them to study and to learn all 
they can. By creating in them a zeal for knowledge 
he will best be accomplishing his legitimate end, and 



252 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

his pupils will acquire learning more rapidly than if 
they have not this zeal created in them. Again, a 
teacher who can fill his pupils with enthusiasm in the 
pursuit of knowledge can bind his pupils to him as if 
by a cord. They will love him better, respect him 
more, and will even fight for him if it becomes necessa- 
ry. Besides, by this means, a teacher can often create 
quite a revival for learning in the whole town or neigh- 
borhood in which he is teaching. This will again re- 
act in his favor and will spread abroad his fame as a 
teacher successful in every respect. ^ 

In this way a teacher can counteract many prejudi- 
cial allusions to the school. For when bad reports 
once get into circulation about a school, only the bad 
and not the good will be spoken of Very, very few 
good reports go out from a badly managed school. 
Teachers must also consider that when the gossip of the 
town or neighborhood once takes the school as its sub- 
ject, it certainly suffers at the hands, or I should say at 
the tongues of the gossipers. So, when a school gets 
well established in the good graces of the people, it 
takes a great deal to overthrow their good opinion of it. 



THINGS TEACHERS OUGHT TO KNOW. 253 

Teachers can do much to govern their schools by 
constantly trying to get their pupils into good habits, 
because if pupils have formed good habits it will take 
some time to break through them. A teacher wants 
his pupils to get into the habit of studying, and this 
will keep them from doing any thing else. In order to 
do this he must restrain them from doing every thing 
else during school hours. Study is the end, the aim, 
the purpose, and the design of school. Every thing else 
ought to be given up. Nothing else ought to be allowed. 

Every teacher will find in every school some pupils 
who would rather do any thing else than study. He 
will find too, that if they cannot do one thing they 
will want to do another. It is the nature of children 
to be busy about something. If the teacher permits 
them to whisper they will spend a great deal of their 
time in whispering. If they are not allowed to do 
that, some will resort to one thing, others will resort 
to other things, in order to pass away the time. 
Pupils in school are generally anxious for time to pass. 
They seem instinctively to want to be doing something 
to make the time pass more rapidly. 



254 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



A boy, if not allowed to whisper, will, if he has mar- 
bles, put his hand into his pocket and count them over 
time and again one by one, or will pull a piece of paper 
into bits, or chew it and roll it into paper balls, or play 
with the buttons on his coat, or will do any thing else 
he can think of which the teacher does not prohibit. 
A girl will, for something else to do, take down and 
put up her hair, or will arrange the folds and flounces of 
her dress, or will re-arrange the books in her desk.— 
Hundreds of other devices might be enumerated to 
which pupils will resort in order to have some means of 
passing the time away more rapidly. 

The teacher wants to turn this propensity of the 
children to be doing something to advantage. He 
wants, as I have said, to get them into the habit of 
studying. This he can do by proper care and man- 
agement, by depriving them of every other means of 
spending their time. By doing this he will have 
gained a twofold victory, first he will be governing his 
school in a praiseworthy manner, and secondly, he will 
be training his pupils into good habits. Besides, he 
will teach his pupils perseverance in getting their 



THINGS TEACHERS OUGHT TO KNOW. 255 

lessons, and they will be doing something useful, rather 
than frittering their time away doing something which 
is worse than doing nothing. So long as pupils are 
allowed to do these things, so long they will do them. 
The human mind is like a tree, it will grow ; but if 
let alone, it is subject to every influence, good and bad, 
just as a tree is subject to be bent by the wind, dwarfed 
by drouths and frosts, stunted by worms and bugs, and 
wilted by the hot sunshine. The mind wants to be 
taken care of; like a tree, it needs to be pruned, 
watered, dressed, and the abnormal sprouts and growths 
must be cleared away. The teacher has most of this 
training and trimming to do. If he does not do it, it is 
rarely ever done. There are very few pupils whom 
such a training will not benefit. Children's minds are 
very easily turned away from their studies. Their 
thoughts easily wander away from their lessons to 
something else. It is the teacher's duty to bring their 
thoughts back from their wanderings to their lessons. 
Children's minds are like tlie minds of older folks, in 
that they let their minds run at random, from one 
thought to another, without attempting or trying to 



256 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

confine them to any thing. But the minds of children 
will not so easily come back to their studies at their 
own bidding. They must be brought back by the 
teacher. So, when a teacher sees any of his pupils 
listlessly and idly dreaming their time away, it becomes 
his duty to call their attention to their studies. It is 
true that some pupils can maintain a perfectly listless 
inactivity and look upon their books with a perfectly 
blank attention; but most will be doing some good, 
will be gaining some ideas, even while they seem to be 
perfectly thoughtless. 

I want to apply these remarks to the one school vice 
which is the most common of any in school. It is the 
first vice of which pupils are guilty. I may say too, 
it is one of the most annoying, and the hardest to pre- 
vent. I suppose you all know that I refer to whisper- 
ing. I had all along thought that I would have time 
to devote a whole lecture to whispering, but the Com- 
mittee have just told me that one-half day of the In- 
stitute is devoted to the election of officers and the 
passage of resolutions. So that I will be obliged to say 
on this important subject what I have to say, at the 
last part of this lecture. 



THINGS TEACHERS OUGHT TO KNOW. 257 

No one plan for the prevention of whispering will 
answer very long, but will, so to speak, wear out. 
Another must then be adopted. A severe punishment 
cannot be inflicted for an ofiense which is generally 
regarded as being so slight. I myself have tried almost 
every plan I ever heard of. 

Now, to apply what I have said about depriving 
pupils of doing something wrong, and thus force them to 
do something right. If pupils are not permitted to 
whisper or do any thing else, they will soon get tired 
of sitting in their seats doing nothing, and as they have 
nothing else to do they will study. Young persons 
cannot well be idle, cannot pass their time doing noth- 
ing, so they will be, in a manner, forced to study. 
Then how much it conduces to the prosperity of a 
school, to deprive the pupils of the means of doing a 
thing which will be a detriment to themselves and to 
others, and thus in a certain degree at least, compel 
them to do a thing to their advantage. 

Whispering is more a habit than any thing else. I 
have before said that any bad habit may in time be- 
come a vice. Whispering in the school room soon be- 



258 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

comes a vice, and almost an unbearable one. As all 
habits when once formed are very hard to overcome, it 
is much better not to allow any thing to become a 
habit. 



LECTURE XVII. 



KINDNESS. — CONCLUSION. 

The subject of kindness in the school room has been 
so much talked of as a means of government, that I 
almost fear to treat of it. Perhaps, too, I am not so 
competent to speak of it as others may be. For you 
will remember that I said my experience has been 
almost wholly in schools which had been demoralized 
before I took control of them. My opinions expressed 
in this course of lectures, or rather in this series of 
talks during the last three weeks, may, perhaps, be 
taken as very rigid and stern. I have one consolation, 
however, it is, the schools in which I have taught have 
prepared me for almost every emergency. You who 
have taught in hard schools will have the same consol- 
ation. It is very likely that if a teacher has his j&rst few 
terms of experience in schools which are easily con- 
trolled, he will there form his opinions of the whole ex- 



260 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

tent of school matters in accordance with his own ex- 
perience. It is our past mode of life and action that 
prepare us for after actions and modes of life. 

In always having hard schools to teach, I have per- 
haps had more occasion to fathom the depths of a 
knowledge of human nature than most teachers who 
have not been placed in such trying situations. I may 
say however, that it has been a benefit to me; it has 
prepared me for almost every emergency than can arise 
in my future school aifairs. 

He who has been towed about by the waves of ad- 
versity looks at business matters very differently from 
him who has been fondled in the lap of ease and plenty. 
The one knows how to buffet the waves of opposition 
and difficulty, the other either sinks beneath them, or 
after struggling for awhile, must have help to overcome 
them. The one has the experience needed for life, the 
other has not. He who has had all his desires gratified 
by merely asking, will be a very different kind of a 
man from the one who has never had any desires 
gratified, except the most absolute necessities demand- 
ed by nature. 



KINDNESS CONCLUSION. 261 

You have all no doubt read many very nice essays, 
and heard many feeling lectures on teaching and con- 
trolling through means of the pupil's better nature. 
These things all sound very well when we read them 
or hear them delivered in eloquent and nicely rounded 
periods. But will they stand the test of the school 
room? That is the question. Not long ago I heard 
an able man deliver an address upon the subject of 
school government, but he treated it as though chil- 
dren were but a little lower than the angels. What 
would such a man have done amid the turbulent 
elements which some of us have had to control? 
What whould he have done with those pupils who 
came with the express purpose of breaking up the 
school? He would, without a doubt, answer, "Win 
the pupil." This may all be very well, provided they 
can be won. I, too, would say, win your pupils, when- 
ever, and by whatever means you can. But I am 
satisfied that most of our teachers cannot win all the 
pupils of every school which may fall to them to be 
taught. 



262 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

We must take human nature as it is, not as it ought 
to be. There is no doubt that it is better to rule by 
love than fear. But pupils must first have reason to 
love their teacher, before they will be restrained by the 
mere fact of knowing that the teacher would not com- 
mend them if they did a certain act. These theories 
would all be very nice if children were perfect beings, 
not liable to err. For my pai*t, however, I have found 
them far from being so. 

The pupils must know and feel that there is some- 
thing else to govern them besides kind words and bland 
smiles. Of course the intelligent kind hearted teacher 
can do much to elevate the pupils whom he has under 
his care for some time. But we must consider that 
almost every teacher is every few weeks receiving new 
pupils who have been trained by vicious parents, or 
who have been taught by teachers unskillful in govern- 
ment. When such pupils as these come to school, 
very likely against their own wills, as many of them 
doubtless do, they, thinking that all teachers are alike, 
or that teachers make use of the same means as their 
parents, must first be taught that there is a systematic 



KINDNESS — CONCLUSION. 263- 

power to back the teacher in his restraints upoa 
viciously inclined pupils. 

The teacher's first business is to establish his author- 
ity. He must be able to command the respect of his 
pupils. A person who pretends to wield authority but 
has no power, cannot be kind to his pupils without 
causing them thereby to think that he is doing so for 
policy's sake. They will think, and even say, that the 
teacher is trying to wheedle them into obedience. 
Being kind and clever is to them, a sign of weakness. 
But if they know that he has the courage to adopt and 
maintain any measures that may be necessary, they 
will think, when he is kind to them, that it is from 
disinterested motives, and will appreciate his kindness, 
and, will on that account be much more respectful 
towards him. 

A weak man in any position requiring power is 
despised. This is evidently the case in the profession 
of teaching. This holds good though a man may have 
been ever so great a favorite before he began teaching. 
Let him lack the power to control his school, he will 
be hooted at and his name will become a byword of 



264 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

reproach in the town or neighborhood in which he is 
teaching. I believe in being kind, but there is danger 
of being too kind. A teacher ought to establish that 
he has force of character before he can afford to be 
kind to a great degree. Of course a teacher, as well 
as every other person should always be polite. 

A great many teachers make a sad mistake by sup- 
posing that if they do not annex the penalty for the 
violation of some rule, their pupils will think that they 
are very obliging and kind. But not so, the pupils 
will put an entirely different construction upon his acts. 
Some teachers also think that if they do not inflict a 
punishment, they are entitled to the love and gratitude 
of the pupil who was to be punished. 

Now, after a teacher has established that he has 
the requisite moral force, can afford to be kind. His 
pupils then know that he is not afraid to carry out his 
rules, and if he does them a kindness, they set it down 
as a favor. Let me here say, however, that I do not 
advocate letting a pupil go unpunished for any wrong he 
may have done, I only mean that a teacher can other- 
wise be kind and obliging to his pupils without giving 



KINDNESS CONCLUSION. 265 



them room to think that he is doing so for policy's 
sake. I may here say, too, that if you are a success- 
ful teacher and control your school well, the pupils will 
be glad that you are their friend ; they will then be truly 
thankful for any kindness. On the other hand, if you 
are not a successful teacher they will not covet your 
kindness or your friendship, and will disclaim any 
friendly advances you may make. In fact they may 
•even shun your society, merely because you have been 
!ijin.successful in governing them. The way to win pu- 
pils is to coerce them, not into friendship, but 
into obedience, and that will bring respect, and even 
friendship, I will here venture the remark that the 
strictest disciplinarians always will have firmer friends 
among their pupils than those who are not so strict in 
their discipline. 

Some pupils will slight a teacher in company, cut 
him while passing him on the street, or take other meth- 
ods of assailing him for no other reason than that they 
have been punished by him. They will do all that, too, 
when they themselves very well know that they de- 
served the punishment. The best way to remedy this 



266 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

evil is to manifest perfect indifference, because if the 
pupil sees that the teacher feels the insult, they know 
they are accomplishing their purpose. If, however 
the pupils see that the teacher is indifferent or if they 
are not sustained by the community or the circle in 
which they move, they will relent and be more respect- 
ful to the teacher. Here again we may see the advan- 
tage of having right on our side. For if the teacher 
does what is right, the people will generally sustain 
him, and he will always have the approbation of the 
better classes. 

These lectures much lengthened beyond my first 
intentions, must now be brought to a close. I would 
much like to have said much more on some of the 
topics here handled, and upon others not touched 
upon, but which are intimately connected with the 
subject as a whole. I by no means lay down these 
plans which I have from time to time here presented 
as if there were no others, but lay them down for 
those who have no plans of their own. All that I 
claim is that these plans, or most of them have 
worked well for me, and I believe they will benefit 



KINDNESS — CONCLUSION. 267 

most of you. What I insist upon is that there be 
some plan, some system. Any plan, any system is bet- 
ter than none. In the treatment of the subject I have 
not aimed at a strictly scientific discussion of the 
subject, but have all along endeavored to make my 
remarks as plain and practical as possible, taking into 
consideration that many of you have never taught. 
This has perhaps caused many repetitions, and perhaps 
some seeming contradictions. These I trust the 
teachers will reconcile by carefully studying what has 
been said. 

As there are quite a number of visitors with us 
to-day, and among them are many parents, it may 
not be inappropriate to say a few words to them. 
Parents, I will here make an assertion that may startle 
you, but it is nevertheless true; it is that you either 
directly or indirectly cause more than one-half of all 
the troubles that beset the teacher on every hand. 
Hence, I say give your teachers all the encouragement 
you can; throw as few obstacles in their way as possible; 
help them all you can. They are laboring to train the 
immortal minds of your children. They are educating 



268 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

them to care for you when you are old and tottering to 
the tomb. May they not educate them to bring your 
gray hairs in sorrow to the grave. They are teaching 
your children to revere you and to reverence your 
memories when you are gone, to transmit your words 
and deeds to their own children, and children's chil- 
dren, for long years to come, and when time shall 
close, that innumerable generations may rise up and 
call you blessed. 

In my conclusion to you. teachers, let me say perse- 
vere; your work is a noble one. Be firm in carrying 
out your plans in doing good. May you feel that you 
are responsible to your fellow man and to your God. 
Let each days work be well and faithfully done. May 
you so act and so teach that your pupils, will by their 
lives, reward you in time and bless you in eternity. 



THE END. 






mi- 



